This year's lecture will be delivered by Joanna M. Pinkerton, PE, BSCE '98. Joanna is the President/CEO of the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA). Her talk is entitled "Who Are You Engineering For?" The lecture is free and open to the public. Please join us for this annual event!
The Spotts Lecture Series was established in 1986 to bring distinguished speakers to ONU on an annual basis. The original purpose was "to predict as nearly as possible the conditions under which present day engineering graduates will be working a generation from now," and the series continues to inform today's engineering and computer science students of the professional conditions, opportunities and challenges that they may face in their future careers.
Dr. Merhyle F. Spotts, BSME 1923, Hon. D. '81, sponsor of the lecture series, graduated from Ohio Northern's College of Engineering. After 10 years in heavy and light industry, he obtained a master's degree from Ohio State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He taught at the University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins University and Northwestern University. Spotts wrote extensively for technical journals and was the author of four books, including Design of Machine Elements, which released eight editions and was used worldwide for decades. Spotts was the recipient of many awards and honors, among them an honorary doctorate of engineering from ONU.