Spring 2007: Dr. Alex Hills to lecture on How Engineers Make a Difference

The UAA School of Engineering hosts professor, inventor and engineering executive

The University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) hosts Dr. Alex Hills as part of the Ralph & Betty George Engineering Ethics Speaker Series on Wednesday, March 14 at 7 p.m. in the UAA/APU Consortium Library, Room 307.  

Hills' lecture, entitled "How Engineers Make a Difference," will discuss how engineers, technology professionals and students are contributing to their local communities and to developing nations around the world.  

Hills is a professor, inventor and engineering executive who has lectured and done consulting work in many foreign countries.  Dr. Hills is Distinguished Service Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, where he and his team created the vision for the technology we now call "Wi-Fi."  He also holds the title of Profesor Extraordinario at the Universidad Austral de Chile, and he heads Alex Hills Associates, a small consulting company based in Palmer, Alaska.  
 
An Alaskan with an extensive record of public service, Dr. Hills lived in the Alaska bush for seven years, where, during the 1970s, he was deeply involved in developing the state's broadcast and telecommunications networks.  He has served as Alaska's Deputy Commissioner of Administration and chief telecommunications official and the University of Alaska's chief information officer.  He is currently a member of the University of Alaska College of Fellows, a member of the UAA School of Engineering Advisory Board, a board member of the American Red Cross Alaska Chapter, a member of the Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce, and Chief Scientist of Helium Networks, Inc.

Dr. Hills is also a valued supporter of UAA through the Dr. Alex Hills Engineering Research Award.  This competitive award, administered by the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship, supports an undergraduate engineering research project showing exceptional merit.  
The School of Engineering is the recipient of a generous bequest establishing an endowment that will fund the ongoing Ralph & Betty George Engineering Ethics Speaker Series, which is designed to enhance ethical practices in engineering.  

The speaker series will help raise public awareness of UAA's engineering program, enhance the UAA School of Engineering's reputation, imbue students with critical ethical decision making skills, and improve ethical practices within the industry.  The ethical engineers who graduate from UAA will become ethical leaders in our local, state and national communities, and in the engineering community, as well.  

This lecture is free and open to the public.  For more information on UAA's School of Engineering and Dr. Alex Hills' upcoming lecture, contact 786-1900 or www.engr.uaa.alaska.edu.