Jianmin Qu, dean of the Tufts School of Engineering, will deliver the keynote address at the College's annual symposium on integrating a liberal education with engineering.

The two-day symposium kicks off Friday, May 31, with sessions in Wold 010 and Olin 115.

Ashraf Ghaly, the Carl B. Jansen Professor of Engineering, will give welcoming remarks at 6 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.

Qu’s talk, “A Tale of Two Purposes: Engineering Education in the 21st Century,” follows. President David R. Harris will introduce him.

Qu is the Karol Family Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Tufts. His research focuses on micromechanics of composites, interfacial fracture and adhesion, fatigue and creep damage in solder alloys. His other areas of expertise include thermomechanical reliability of microelectronic packaging, defects and transport in solids with applications to solid oxide fuel cells and batteries, and ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation of advanced engineering materials.

He holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in theoretical and applied mechanics from Northwestern University, and is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Among the schools and companies represented at the symposium are IBM, California Polytechnic State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Bucknell University, University of Rochester and Tufts University.

As the first liberal arts college to offer engineering in 1845, Union holds a distinctive place in higher education.

This marks the 12th year the College has hosted a conference on integrating engineering and the liberal arts. The event has attracted national attention, including a feature in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

This year’s symposium is funded in part by the Laurence W. Levine ’52 and Barry Traub ’53 Endowed Lecture Fund.