Video: Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Jayathi Murthy Discusses Pivotal Role of Engineering Education

On April 9, the University of California, Davis College of Engineering welcomed Oregan State University President Jayathi Y. Murthy as its spring Dean’s Distinguished Speaker. Murthy engaged faculty, staff and students at the Student Community Center, where she chronicled her journey in engineering and participated in a conversation with Dean of Engineering Richard L. Corsi, during which they discussed the future of engineering education and research.

Murthy is currently the 16th president of Oregon State University. Prior to that, Murthy served as the first woman dean of the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, and as chair of the mechanical engineering department at the University of Texas at Austin. She has held professorships at Purdue University, Carnegie Mellon University and Arizona State University. She also worked for a decade in industry at Fluent, Inc., a developer and vendor of the world’s most widely used computational dynamics software.

Murthy received a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota, a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Washington State University and a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, where she was named a distinguished alumna in 2012.

During her talk, Murthy shared her journey through education and academia and expounded on her hopes for women in the engineering field. She then conversed with Dean Corsi on topics ranging from emerging technologies, including those related to climate, sustainability, aging populations and health technology, as well as crucial learning moments in her career.

Photos of the event are available on the college’s Flickr.