Engineering colloquium to look at 'Risky Business'

November 5, 2014  


WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The 2014 Interdisciplinary Engineering Colloquium, hosted by the Purdue University School of Engineering Education, will explore handling risk in products and processes.

The colloquium, "Risky Business: Accepting Human Failure; Preventing System Failure," will examine the issue from the perspectives of the insurance industry and scientific research.

It will be from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Nov. 13 in Armstrong Hall's Kurz Atrium. It is free and open to the public.

Panelists will be Tom Gray, property consulting director for CNA, and Karen Marais, assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics.

Gray, who graduated from Purdue with a degree in interdisciplinary engineering focused on engineering management, has nearly four decades of professional experience in the insurance industry.

He has worked with high-hazard industries, such as chemical and pharmaceutical companies and grain elevators, where dust explosions and flammable liquid fires are considered very high hazard risks.

Marais has a background in aerospace engineering and researches system safety and risk analysis.

She will present a history of our understanding of failure and what steps could be taken to improve a situation.

In the spirit of the School of Engineering Education's pioneering Multidisciplinary Engineering/Interdisciplinary Engineering Studies programs, the colloquium brings together speakers to discuss a topical subject, inviting perspectives from fields including engineering, the humanities and social sciences, and education. 

Writer: Judith Barra Austin, 765-494-2432, jbaustin@purdue.edu

Source: Michael Loizzo, communications director, School of Engineering Education, 765-494-9391, mloizzo@purdue.edu 

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