IE 719

 Dr. Ayhan Sol from the Department of Philosophy delivered an outstanding lecture on November 13, 2008 that introduced the topics in ethics related to sustainability.  Dr. Sol's talk placed several issues of sustainability in a domain that is much more abstract than with what we engineers are familiar.  Such "outside-mainstream-engineering" views are of paramount importance if we are to find creative solutions to the various problems in our insustainable world.  We seem to be in dire need of re-evaluating our keen industrial engineering urge of ever more productivity and efficiency.  It may be that, as instigators of more and more production at lower and lower costs, industrial engineers were hitherto more associated with the problem.  It may also be that, as we apply our industrial engineering insights along the principles of sustainability, we may become a significant contributor to the solutions.

In a greater context, Dr. Sol's talk may be regarded a compelling argument for engineering students to take demanding courses from social sciences.  I personally hope that our students contemplate taking courses from philosophy.

Our heartfelt thanks go to Dr. Sol for his visit.

Dr. Annette Hohenberger from the Department of Cognitive Science, at the Informatics Institute at METU, gave a most exhilarating lecture on October 16, 2008, titled "A Cognitive Perspective on Sustainability."  The lecture was followed by an hour of open class discussions. The lecture was also attended by several faculty and outside guests.  We thank Dr. Hohenberger for her lecture and hope that she will be a frequent visitor to our classes.

The presentation of Dr. Hohenberger is available in the "Class notes" section of the links (use the menu on the left).