The Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering will be hosting the 2011 Harold W. Gegenheimer Lecture and the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering’s (ME) Capstone Expo on Thursday, December 8, 2011.  John G. Voeller, an alumnus of the school and chief knowledge and technology officer at Black & Veatch, will deliver this year’s Gegenheimer Lecture.  The Gegenheimer Lecture will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Ferst Center, and the expo will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Clough Commons atrium.

Voeller’s lecture will focus on innovation — past and future — and on marrying the fundamentals of engineering and new advances in technology to enable the expansion of human creativity.  The expo, held later that day, is the culmination of student projects from the Mechanical Engineering senior design course. The event showcases more than 40 design teams and the prototypes they have created to address real-world problems.

“You can expect to see an auto-locking medical sharp container by team Post Medical, a temperature-controlled violin case by team Perfect Temp-O, a sport vehicle loader by team Crane Engineering and a regenerative braking system for a bicycle by team Air Bike,” said Craig Forest, assistant professor of ME and coordinator of the expo. “The Capstone Expo is a fun show-and-tell event — a celebration of invention, with dozens of new ideas created by Georgia Tech’s graduating seniors.”