Fall Lecture Series

The 2011 Engineering Lecture Series takes flight to explore the innovations transforming the aerospace industry. Cleaner airplanes and ground operations will decrease environmental impact and boost efficiency and sustainability for commercial aviation and the military. On the horizon, autonomous networked vehicles with astonishing capabilities will accomplish missions too dangerous, difficult, or distant for humans.

Re-Engineering Aerospace: Flying Cleaner, Greener, Smarter

Shrinking the Aerospace Carbon Footprint

Mary Armstrong (B.S. ChemE ’79), Vice President – Environment, Health and Safety, The Boeing Company

Boeing is designing new aircraft to be fuel efficient, quieter, and more recyclable. On the ground, manufacturing facilities are reducing use of energy, water, and hazardous materials. Chemical engineering alumna Mary Armstrong reveals how engineering innovations are shrinking Boeing's domestic carbon footprint by 25% and leading worldwide industry efforts to enable zero carbon growth for air travel.
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Repowering the Military with Alternative Energy

Tim Vinopal (M.S. Engineering ’91), Director – Environment, Health and Safety Engineering, Boeing Defense, Space and Security

The U.S. military aims to dramatically reduce dependency on imported oil to power ships and aircraft. Alumnus Tim Vinopal explains how Boeing is developing hydrogen- and solar-powered unmanned aircraft, producing the world’s most-efficient solar cells, testing use of sustainable fuels for tactical aircraft, and designing smart-grid electrical systems for government facilities.
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Flying Smart with Autonomous Vehicles

Mehran Mesbahi, Professor, Aeronautics & Astronautics, and Principal Investigator, Distributed Space Systems Lab

Awed by the precision flying of the Blue Angels pilots? Imagine autonomous drones performing complex group maneuvers with no human intervention, or satellites orbiting together around the sun, jointly searching for exoplanets. Mehran Mesbahi offers insights from engineering and biology to reveal how networked “smart” vehicles will take on challenging aerospace missions.
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Photos courtesy of The Boeing Company.