Engineering Social Change
Dr. R Balasubramaniam
Visiting Professor, Cornell University
Abstract: Human progress and development affect people from all walks of life and demands a multidimensional and comprehensive perspective. As engineering students today acquire competencies and knowledge about different STEM related subjects, many find themselves not well prepared for leading social change. They are challenged by the complexity and diversity that a rapidly changing world presents them with. Today’s problems in areas such as business, education, natural and man-made disasters, conflicts, international relations, health care, climate change, human rights and gender issues are complex and demand skills beyond science and engineering for tackling them. No single discipline be it STEM or liberal arts, can solve these problems in isolation. The COVID crisis and ongoing wars around the world has set a ‘new normal’ and existing knowledge and strategies may no longer be adequate to operate during uncertain times. While the world of Generative AI offers unfathomable opportunities, we now require a new generation of engineers who are capable of bringing about societal change driven by compassion, empathy and ethics.
The speaker with nearly 4 decades of experience in social development will speak how one can apply engineering principles and expertise to address societal challenges and create positive impacts on communities and the broader society. This approach will require combining technical knowledge, problem-solving skills, and a deep understanding of human behavior & social issues to design and implement solutions that lead to meaningful change.
About the Speaker: Having embarked on his journey in the development sector by living and working for several years among remote forest based tribal communities in the southern Indian district of Mysuru, Dr. R Balasubramaniam (Balu) is a widely respected development activist, leadership trainer, thinker and writer. After his MBBS, he earned his MPhil in Hospital Administration & Health Systems Management from BITS, Pilani. He has a Master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University. His living habits were greatly influenced by the teachings of Swami Vivekananda and at the age of 19, he founded the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement based on the principles of Ahimsa, Satya, Seva and Tyaga. He has spent more than three decades of his life in the service of the rural and tribal poor in the forests of India. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement, a public policy thinktank in India. Dr Balu embodies a rare blend of grassroots and macro perspectives and policy through his multi-faceted experience of more than three decades. He is a Tata Scholar, a Mason Fellow of the Harvard Kennedy School and a Fellow at the Hauser Center for Civil Society, Harvard University. He was the Head and Visiting Professor of the Vivekananda Chair, University of Mysore twice.
CAMP 176
Friday, November 10, 2023, 4pm
Also on Zoom: https://clarkson.zoom.us/j/99689458746?pwd=eVowa1RleDRwdWNNT1pyUS82eUpmdz09
*Co-Sponsored by IEEE student branch and HKN
