Mechanical Engineering Distinguished Lecture: President Richard Miller of Olin College

President Richard Miller

Date: 

Monday, September 19, 2016 - 2:00pm

Location: 

ESB 2001

Speaker: 

President Richard Miller

Shaping the Future of Undergraduate Education: Lessons Learned from Experimentation at Olin College

When Olin College of Engineering was established in 1997, the fundamental mission was to rethink what it means to be educated in the 21st century, and rethink what it means to be an engineer. Olin does not offer tenure, there are no academic departments, and everything at Olin has an expiration date. In 2013, Olin College won the NAE’s Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education, and it has received visitors from 650 universities. Since the first courses were offered in 2002, many institutions have partnered with Olin to redesign their undergraduate programs, and around the world several entirely new institutions are being established in partnership with Olin. This talk will present an overview of the Olin learning culture and the major lessons learned, which are widely applicable throughout all of higher education.

Bio: Richard K. Miller was appointed President and first employee of Olin College of Engineering in 1999.  He served as Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Iowa from 1992-99. spent 17 years on the Engineering faculty at USC and UCSB. Miller is the author of more than 100 reviewed journal articles and other technical publications. Together with two Olin colleagues, he received the 2013 Bernard M. Gordon Prize from the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education. A member of both the NAE and the National Academy of Inventors, he received the Marlowe Award for creative and distinguished administrative leadership from the American Society for Engineering Education in 2011. Miller served as Chair of the Engineering Advisory Committee of the NSF and has served on advisory boards and committees for Harvard University, Stanford University, the NAE, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point among others. He has also served as a consultant to the World Bank in the establishment of new universities. He received the 2002 Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award from the University of California at Davis, where he earned his B.S. He earned his M.S. from MIT and Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology, where he received the 2014 Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award.

Event Type: 

Lecture