5/12/2011
This weekend, more than 1,000 students will graduate from our College, certifying the completion of their bachelors’, masters’, and PhD degree studies. As we celebrate their achievements, we also point to the future, as commencement marks a beginning.
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This weekend, more than 1,000 students will graduate from our College, certifying the completion of their bachelors’, masters’, and PhD degree studies. As we celebrate their achievements, we also point to the future, as commencement marks a beginning.
To the 2011 class of the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois, congratulations. You were accepted to one of the great Engineering schools in the world, you made a brilliant choice to enroll and you survived and hopefully thrived through the hard work, inspiration and joys of completing your course of study.
“One may judge a University by its faculty, its research, or its students, but the best measure is the quality and character of its alumni, as reflected in their professional achievement, in their citizen service, in the way they live and in the values by which they live”
What a wonderfully concise and insightful concept. If Dr Henry is right and I think he clearly is, the University and College are highly respected because our alumni are exceptional in each of these four dimensions. My advice to you, today, is that you leave this ceremony with the conviction that in your career and in your life, you will be equally exceptional. To help understand how you might do that, let’s take a quick look at each of Dr. Henry’s four dimensions.
As an engineer, the quality of your professional achievement will be measured both on your own engineering achievements and by your participation in the creation and advancement of companies and academia, which establish the environment for others to create their engineering achievements.
The National Academy of Engineering has identified the greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century. Illinois engineering alumni have played critical and in some cases leadership roles in those achievements. They include the invention of the transitor, superconductivity, solid state integrated circuits, the light-emitting diode, the first computer on a chip, portable cell phones, the first widely used web browser, Hoover Dam, interstate highways, MRI, and kidney dialysis.
Illinois alumni have also been responsible for the founding or excellence of many great companies including W.W. Grainger, AMD, Oracle, Siebel Systems, YouTube, Netscape, Nokia, Tesla Motors, International Paper, and Eastman Kodak.
The Academy also identified the most famous contributors to these achievements, many of whom are part of the 2010 inaugural inductees of the newly created Engineering at Illinois Hall of Fame. But perhaps even more importantly, it’s the contributions of the tens of thousands of less known Illinois engineering graduates and their achievements that establish the reputation of the College.
Through an experience early in my career I am proud to consider myself one of those tens of thousands. One of the achievements the Academy recognizes is the creation of the world’s first portable cell phone in 1973 by Motorola. In the second year of my career at Motorola, on Christmas day 1972, I sat by myself at my engineering work bench in the Applied Research Lab in Ft Lauderdale, Florida. I was working on the design of the receiver front end that eventually was used to make the first two prototypes of the portable cell phone recognized by the Academy. There were easily 100 or more other Illinois graduates in the labs and emerging cell phone business unit that played similar roles.
The National Academy of Engineering has also identified the Grand Challenges of the 21st Century. I encourage you to become familiar with them and position yourself to be a contributor to achievements that address these challenges. If your career is typical then within a decade or so, your most important contributions will come from the founding or advancement of a company or academic institution. Early in your career, begin preparing yourself for this transition.
If you’re the typical engineering graduate, focus on professional achievement will come naturally. It’s Dr. Henry’s other three dimensions that will require special effort. I think the third dimension--“in the way they live” addresses just that.
My interpretation is molded by an experience I had about half way through my career at Motorola. I was selected to attend a week long leadership course that made a big impact on my life. When I received the materials that would be used for the course, they included a button that we were told we should wear at all times during the course. The button was red and had four white dots evenly spread over its surface. We were given no explanation of what it meant. The course focused on the need for a leader to live a balanced life, applying energy not only to your career but also to community, your family, and yourself.
At the end of the course, the meaning of the button was revealed. It was a button of a button. Just like the buttons an engineer would have on the white shirt with the pocket protector we wore back then. We were told that each morning when we buttoned our shirt to remember that each button had four holes, one each for career, community, family and self. They were all the same size and it would take equal amounts of energy to fill each hole. A valuable tool to be exceptional, quote--“in the way we live.”
An example of how I use the family button hole comes from another experience from that course. We were given personality tests to help us understand our interactions with others. One of those tests was the Firo-B test. One of the dimensions it measures is how much you want affection versus how much your express affection.
The psychologist that went over the tests with me noted that my score on expressing affection was one of the lowest she had ever seen. She then said “Let me put it this way, with this score I imagine that when you’re leaving for a business trip and your wife drops you off at the airport, you both go back to the trunk of the car to get your bag, she gets up on her tiptoes to give you a kiss and says honey do your still love me, your answer will probably be 'Look, I told you I loved you when we were married, if anything changes I’ll let you know.' Now, maybe it wasn’t quite that bad, but since then, every time I say good night or goodbye to my wife or my boys, I say 'I love you'.”
President Henry’s second dimension used wonderful words to describe the button hole on community--“citizen service.” Community volunteerism might be more descriptive but citizen service is more poetic. The ultimate outcomes of both professional achievements and citizen service are contributions to society. We are motivated to do both because we want to make a difference and we want to give back for all the benefits that have been provided to us. Your training as an engineer can be a valuable resource to your community, your church, your children’s school, charities, or your Alma Mater.
Right now the University and College need your help and support. We all know the issues state and local government face today. You’ve seen firsthand the impact on the University and College. Over the years I’ve derived enormous satisfaction from the donation of my money and time to many causes and have especially enjoyed my work with the College and University. No matter where you direct your citizen service, I know you will as well.
The last of President Henry’s dimensions “the values by which they live” addresses the button hole of self. Example of values you might think of include: accountability, commitment, concern for others, fairness, faith, goodness, integrity, love, respect for others, or tolerance. But the concept of Love as a virtue might be the most compelling value. Love as a virtue is part of many of the world’s religions and is best defined by this version of one the most famous verses in the Bible: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.”
An interesting dynamic of President Henry’s dimensions--professional achievement, to citizen service, to how we live, to the values with which we live--is that they progress from what we do to who we are. They also progress from using the gifts we were born with to making critical choices on who we want to be.
So, this is your first day as an alumnus of the College of Engineering at University of Illinois. You are standing on the shoulders of those alumni who define the greatness of this institution. Will you, today, set a goal to commit yourself to equal the exceptional measure of their achievements? And do so by the measure of the quality and character of your professional achievements, your citizen service, in the way you live your life and the values by which you live that life?
My greatest hope and prayer today, is that your will. Thank you.