It's been almost two years since we officially launched Duke Engineering's Character Forward Initiative. Its goal is to thoughtfully and purposefully bring considerations of ethics and character into our existing curriculum. The end result: providing our students rigorous engineering education while also becoming better people. I'm pleased to share with you just a few examples of these efforts in action. In our First-Year Design experience, students focus and reflect on traits such as respect and resilience that naturally align with the design process. Students in robotics and autonomous design learn to navigate the gray space between success and mistakes. First-Year Computing integrates the Aristotelian idea that you can become a better person through practice along with fundamental skills in algorithm design. It is truly gratifying to see these efforts taking shape across our school, and I can't wait to see how this program continues to grow and help define the next generation of engineering leadership.

One of Duke Engineering's cardinal directives is to seek knowledge in service to society. One of the best ways of impacting people directly is to translate our benchtop discoveries into real-world products. Since the early 1990s, Pei Zhong has been an incredible example of this focus in action. With a decades-long track record of directly upgrading and influencing kidney stone treatment technologies, Pei's lab plays a critical role in shaping safer, more effective medical technologies.

"AI is a tool that can be wielded for good and for harm, and it's our job to help students figure out what is that line between good uses of the technology and harmful uses of the technology."

Brinnae Bent
on teaching students to understand the capabilities and limits of AI

Jungsang Kim has spent more than two decades at Duke University pushing the boundaries of science and engineering and translating breakthroughs into new ventures—most notably as co‑founder of IonQ, a publicly traded quantum computing company. Now, as Duke’s first chief science and technology strategist for the provost, Kim is helping chart the university’s research future. Through a quick Q&A session, discover what he has planned for the next chapter of Duke Science & Technology.