My welcome remarks on the occasion of our launch event, Humanizing STEM, for Georgia Tech's Year of the Liberal Arts. Join us at our events throughout the YLA.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome!
Today is an exciting day in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. I’m thrilled to see all of you here in Midtown Atlanta, for Humanizing Tech, the launch of our Year of the Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech.
I want to give a special shoutout to the guests who have traveled across town, across the state, or even from farther away. As of yesterday’s registration count, we have deans and chairs from Emory, Clemson, Columbus State, Texas Southern, and Morgan State universities.
And there needs to be another shoutout. And that’s to the 30 staff, students, faculty, and volunteers who are making this event happen: You see two of them featured here: My executive assistant, Kimberley Cartier, and our College Administrative Officer, Will Jimerson; all involved in planning and working this event please stand and be recognized.
And now, before we begin, I want to welcome Georgia Tech’s Vice Provost for Enrollment, Paul Kohn, to extend a greeting. Paul is a friend of the Liberal Arts, and we’re happy he is with us.
Remarks by Vice Provost Paul Kohn...
Thank you, Vice Provost Kohn. And thanks to all of you for being here, especially to our speakers. I am eager to hear from each of you about the vital role the liberal arts play in a world increasingly shaped by technology,... a world shaped by technology.
We’ll probably hear variations of this phrase today. After all, technology is always in the headlines. But instead of “a world shaped by technology,” I’d like to propose a different lens for today’s event. A vision of a world shaped by the enduring humanistic and social values at the heart of what we do in Ivan Allen College.
Let’s call it progress with purpose. And that purpose is: serving humanity.
Technology can empower us. It can make life easier, bring us closer, even help pull back the layers of history to hear voices from the past.
We’re fortunate to be at Georgia Tech, one of the great engines of technological innovation. All across campus, researchers are working tirelessly to clean our atmosphere, democratize science, and improve healthcare. It’s inspiring to be a part of this work.
However, technology can also isolate, dehumanize, and disempower us.
And this is where the liberal arts may matter the most. In fact, it is when humanists, social scientists, and STEM scholars work shoulder to shoulder, that we can ensure technological innovation works for us, not against us.
That’s what I call progress with purpose.
Now, integrating the liberal arts with STEM is nothing new for Georgia Tech.
For 139 years, the liberal arts have been a part of Georgia Tech.
Nowadays, we’re teaching students about the ethics of AI and machine learning. We deepen STEM students’ understanding of complex equations by asking them to perform them on stage; we probe the myriad roles of the human voice in music, marketing, culture, medicine, and technology; and we’re finding ways to mesh human creativity and technology, as when we recently staged the world’s first collaborative AI dance performance.
That’s what I mean by progress with purpose.
I encourage you to take a look that the Dean’s report (the gorgeous cover is by alumna Nettrice Gaskins, whose work has also been shown at the Smithsonian) for the last academic year: It tells you we help policy makers understand the interconnections between health policy and economics; we are involved in creating Georgia’s first Climate Action plan, explore the challenges of autism in communities of color, improve emergency alerts for people with disabilities, offer a pathways to policy program in Washington, DC, and recover the stories of enslaved people.
Students see the value of what we’re doing. While liberal arts programs are contracting elsewhere, they are flourishing right here, at a technological university. Since 2020, applications to our college have risen 59 percent.
If you also see the value of what we do, and want us to be able to do more, please consider supporting our college as part of Georgia Tech’s Capital Campaign: Transforming Tomorrow. You can find information on the final page of the dean’s report. One of our main goals is to increase student scholarships, so students from all backgrounds might have access to a Georgia Tech education.
Because: contrary to popular misinformation, a liberal arts education does set our students up for success. Our job placement record and our alumni confirm it. Here's alumna Dréa Lewis, who owns two businesses, one in film production and one in home health care:
Dréa is out there using the tools she acquired with us to improve entertainment and healthcare. That's what we mean by progress with purpose.
Throughout today’s event, our speakers will explain how the humanities and social sciences are more important than ever. After each speaker, one of our own faculty leaders will share how the liberal arts humanize STEM right here in Ivan Allen College.
By deliberately integrating humanities, social sciences, and STEM, we’re creating a better future, one driven by empathy, ethics, and a shared sense of humanity. And we’re going to get better science and technology, to boot.
So yes, we need technology. But we need technology that serves humanity. Yes, we need code, but we need humanity embedded in every line. And yes, we need progress, but we need progress with humanity as our purpose. That’s the vision I hope today’s event can offer.
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