Billington Delivers
Second Annual Kerr Lecture

by Diane S. Kukich

May 10, 2007

For almost half a century, David Billington, the Gordon Y. S. Wu Professor of Engineering at Princeton University, has helped undergraduate students make the connection between engineering and the social, cultural, and political world in which we live. On Wednesday, May 9, students, faculty, and staff at UD got a flavor of Billington's approach when he delivered the Second Annual Arnold D. Kerr Lecture in Mitchell Hall.

In his talk, "Power, Speed, and Form: Engineers and the Making of the Twentieth Century," Billington said he believes that "engineering is the way to integrate the many diverse strands of the university." He takes a very humanistic approach to the discipline by focusing on individual engineers who have made major innovations.

Billington said engineering can be viewed from three major perspectives: the scientific, where formulas are used to show relationships; the social, which provides various contexts for construction; and the symbolic, which captures changes in vision.

For this innovative educator, the symbolic can be seen through art. He began his talk by showing two works of American landscape artist Thomas Cole. In the first one, done in his earlier period between 1828 and 1846, Cole paints a scene of a frightening wilderness. The later work depicts a picnic scene, where "nature has been domesticated," said Billington. He attributes the change in artistic content to two engineering accomplishments: the railroad and the steamboat. The former opened up the wilderness shown in the first painting, and the latter took Cole up the Hudson River to the idyllic scene in the second painting.

Billington went on to explain how four categories of engineering innovations--structures, machines, networks, and processes--enabled America to build an urban society. Innovators such as Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, bridge designer Othmar Ammann, and William Burton, who developed the chemical process behind the petroleum industry, were responsible for the transformation of communities that resulted from these engineering accomplishments.

"As we trace our story through American history, we recognize that the transformation of the country came about in large measure through electricity, flight, oil, and the infrastructure that carried us through the twentieth century," Billington concluded.

Billington's impact at UD goes beyond the Kerr Lecture. Roland Heck, a former colleague at Princeton who is now retired, is teaching an honors freshman colloquium at Delaware. ARSC390, Technology in America: From the Steamboat to the Internet and Beyond, is modeled on Billington's classes.

"Roland's class has been very well received," said Department Chair Michael Chajes. "We're really excited to have him here to share the approach used at Princeton with our students. We're also pleased to have had Prof. Billington contribute to the Kerr Series. As an author of books intended for not only the engineering community but also a general readership, he epitomizes our vision of the Kerr Lecturer."

Sponsored by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the lecture series was initiated in honor of Arnold D. Kerr, Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering, upon his retirement in 2004. He is an internationally recognized expert in engineering mechanics, with a particular focus on railway engineering.

The first speaker in the annual series was Henry Petroski, Alexander S. Vesic Professor of Engineering and Professor of History at Duke University and the author of more than a dozen books, including Success Through Failure: The Paradox of Design.