When Planes, Trains and Automobiles Call In Sick
63 views · Published 12 May 2015 · 46:29 · Indexed 19 October 2026
Channel: Vanderbilt University · 2015 · Education
DOUG ADAMS: When Planes, Trains and Automobiles Call In Sick The high calling of engineers is to build systems that improve our way of life. The Achilles heel of the engineer has always been the mysterious ways in which materials fail. That is why we spend billions of dollars over decades to better understand how materials behave under a wide range of conditions. What if we could design automobiles, airplanes, and even organ replacements that are intelligent enough to diagnose and repair themselves? It’s not just the stuff of science fiction anymore! This talk will describe how engineers are cracking the material code to prevent future failures making people more secure and the world more sustainable. Doug Adams arrived at Vanderbilt in 2013 and is the Daniel F. Flowers Professor and Distinguished Professor and Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Professor Adams studies the health of materials and machines, and technology he develops is widely adopted by engineers throughout the manufacturing, energy, and defense industries. He has graduated 55 graduate students and sponsored 35 undergraduate interns who have gone on to work in industry, the national labs, and academia. Professor Adams was elected Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2011 and has won national awards for his research including a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. He has authored over 250 articles and holds patents for technologies such as a 3-D laser measurement system to detect flaws in the lightweight materials being used in today’s airplanes. In 2014, his team opened the new Laboratory for Systems Integrity and Reliability in the School of Engineering – a 20,000 square foot, 27-foot high lab for conducting full-scale, realistic tests that translate research discoveries to practical applications. Follow Vanderbilt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vanderbiltu, on Instagram: http://instagram.com/vanderbiltu and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vanderbilt. See all Vanderbilt social media at http://social.vanderbilt.edu.
