Columbia Reunion

Columbia Engineering | Reunion

Thursday, June 1

Dean's Alumni Welcome Dinner & CEAA Awards Presentation
Dean Shih-Fu Chang and the Columbia Engineering Alumni Association (CEAA) invite you to a formal dinner to kick off the weekend and recognize notable alumni and faculty recipients of the prestigious CEAA awards. This year we honor: 

Dr. Norbert Hirschorn, public health physician for his life-saving advancements in Oral Rehydration Therapy, with the Michael Pupin Medal.  

Prof. Anne S. Kiremidjian, The C.L. Peck, Class of 1906 Professor of Engineering at Stanford University for her research and dissemination of probabilistic seismic hazard methods and mentoring with the Thomas Egleston Medal. 

Chatchai Piyasombatkul ’82, P’11, ’12, ’13, ’14, President  of Metro-Ply Group, with the Samuel Johnson Medal.  

Friday, June 2

Engineering Lecture: Today’s Growing Fusion Portfolio & Columbia’s Role with Carlos Paz-Soldan, Associate Professor of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics
Fusion has always been the energy source of the future, but today net energy producing prototypes are poised to deploy by mid-decade. This presentation will discuss the recent explosive growth of a fusion energy industry both in terms of technological advancements and government policy responses. Columbia maintains a world-leading plasma physics and fusion energy group, and the role of Columbia in the growing fusion ecosystem will be discussed.

Saturday, June 3

Dean’s Breakfast and State of the School Address
All alumni are invited to start the day off with inspiration and camaraderie in a special reunion breakfast! Glimpse into the latest developments at Columbia Engineering with Dean Shih-Fu Chang, share in the excitement of what's to come, and join us for a celebratory toast to the Classes of 1973 and 1998 on their golden and silver anniversaries as graduates of Columbia Engineering.

Engineering Lecture: AI Chatbots: What can they do and how do they fail? with Kathleen McKeown, Henry and Gertrude Rothschild Professor of Computer Science
ChatGPT and the technology it is built on, GPT3 and GPT4, are game changers. With them and the other large language models that have recently emerged, models can now produce extremely fluent text. They are also able to perform a variety of tasks in ways that were not previously possible. And there are many situations in which they can be used to help us do things that we previously found tedious. But they are not able to do as much as we might initially have imagined. They have limitations that are not always immediately obvious, and researchers are taking the time to study them so that we can accurately characterize what they can and cannot do. Professor Kathleen McKeown will present a high-level overview of how these technologies work and some answers to frequently asked questions: What can they do well now? What kind of failures do they have? How hard will it be for AI to overcome these problems? Should we be concerned about where AI will go? Does this impact education and how can we expect faculty to respond? Please bring your questions to the session! There will be plenty of time for discussion.

Engineering Lecture: Ushering In a New Decade of Semiconductor Innovation Through the CHIPS ACT with Harish Krishnaswamy, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering
Semiconductor chips lie at the heart of all electronics today. We have a long history of research at Columbia on all aspects of semiconductor devices, circuits and systems. The Federal CHIPS ACT will usher in an unprecedented decade of semiconductor innovation in the US across all aspects of the ecosystem. This talk will provide a historical perspective of research in chips at Columbia, as well as future opportunities afforded by the CHIPS ACT.

Engineering Master's and Doctoral Alumni Reception
Join alumni of the graduate programs and Engineering leadership for an opportunity to catch up with friends and expand your Columbia network.