2025 Keynote Address

Dean Van Citters, thank you for that kind introduction, and Thayer and Dartmouth faculty, staff, administrators, students, families and friends, colleagues—what a privilege it is to be back here with you today to celebrate this extraordinary class of engineering graduates.

To the students—the soon-to-be Thayer School of Engineering Dartmouth graduates—congratulations on taking this significant step in this incredible journey we call engineering.

Whether you spent much of your time in MacLean or Cummings, Couch or the Great Hall, Murdough or DH, Machine Shop or Jackson, or the ECSC, I know something of where you worked. I know something of how hard you worked.
And I know your families and friends are proud of what you have accomplished, proud of seeing you here today.

I also know how you are coming from a place—this place—that almost uniquely challenges you to think in terms of intersections:

• Of engineering and the liberal arts
• Of engineering and business management
• Of engineering and medicine
• Of engineering and entrepreneurship.

It is never 'engineering or' at Dartmouth. It is 'engineering and.' I am making a point of this because we are experiencing a moment where that 'and' is profound. Where that 'and' means nearly everything.

At Lehigh, I speak often of being deeply interdisciplinary, even radically so. I do that to make that very point—that the 'and' means nearly everything.
Because I am convinced that those who understand and can operate in the framework of 'and' will be best prepared to navigate this extraordinary moment of change.

You know the change I am referring to. 

Generative AI.

Text. Code. Images. Increasingly realistic videos. Course syllabi. Lectures. Exams that it can grade. Powerpoints. Podcasts. Legal memoranda.
The list of what it can do, what it can replace, is impressive. And to many, frightening.

A quick google search—or a prompt in ChatGPT or Gemini or your favorite tool—asking about the impact on employment offers some staggering numbers.
By 2030, McKinsey predicts that 30% of current work hours in the US will be automated. Other sources suggest that up to 11 million workers could be affected, or another, that 14 million US jobs could be replaced.

Even in the context of a US employment base of 160 million, that looms large.
And that is just the GenAI piece—throw in biotechnology, robotics, the convergence of physics, chemistry, and biology—and remember nanotechnology?—and you have what many are referring to as the fourth industrial revolution.

But as an engineer I am a technology optimist. I am optimistic, and even excited, about the future, and about YOUR future.

Why?

Let's look at this in the context of other major technology-driven disruptions.
A century ago, the assembly line, Henry Ford's innovation, displaced skilled workers AND led to a reduction in cost of goods and dramatically increased productivity. We reinvented ourselves, created something different, and made new opportunity. 

A half century ago, from the 1960s–1980s, the computer revolution and particularly the PC automated data processing, eliminated many clerical and data management jobs, but led to creation of a whole new 'tech sector' and the birth of new industries. We reinvented ourselves, created something different, and made new opportunity.

Or what about the internet, and then mobile and cloud computing? They transformed entire industries—communications, media, retail—many of your faculty and staff, perhaps your parents, and yes, even I, are old enough to remember telephone booths, printed newspapers, travel agencies, and hunting for something you needed by physically visiting a broad range of stores. All of that, gone.

But new opportunity, new jobs, new sectors, new companies emerged.
We reinvented ourselves, created something different, and made new opportunity.

Are we sensing a theme?

It doesn't happen overnight. But the arc of a career is long. I'm not worried about the future. And I am not worried about you. You are smart, and yes, that is important. You are hard working, and that too is important. But the reason I am optimistic for your future is that you each embody that notion of 'engineering and.'

Your engineering education teaches you to understand the core of technology, its uses and its limits. To be quantitative, to make assumptions, and make informed decisions.

Your business education teaches you to understand the allocation of capital, human and financial, necessary for everyone from the Fortune 500 CEO to the entrepreneur to the person trying to manage their first apartment.

Your liberal arts education teaches you to understand context, to ask why or why not, to understand history, and community, and culture.

Putting these together in different ways means you are prepared to ask, and answer, questions from a range of perspectives. You are not tied to one tool, or one technology, or one way of seeing.

You have also learned to work collaboratively in teams, and communicate—including with people who are NOT engineers—regardless of your degree program. I believe that ability to understand technology combined with the ability to COMMUNICATE is the most important thing you will take from your education.

A few weeks ago, I was in the Boston area for a day of work-related meetings. After a dinner conversation with an alumnus that went late into the evening, I returned to my hotel and got on the elevator to return to my room. Before the doors closed, I was joined by another passenger, a young woman, and I did what I always do, smile and say 'how are you doing?' as the elevator doors closed.

I do this because it's just who I am. I also do this because, in part, I want to give lie to the notion that engineers can't communicate, or at least can't communicate in non-technical language.

Most times a question like this will elicit a simple 'fine, and you?' kind of reply, but this time was different. My fellow elevator passenger looked in my direction, sighed, and said 'How am I? I'm on a work trip, I'm 6 months pregnant, it's 9:00 at night, and I am carrying takeout from the Cheesecake Factory.
I'm living the dream.' I laughed out loud, and thanked her as she stepped off the elevator.

Living the dream.

That brief conversation is on my mind because I am often asked how I am doing, in a tone that conveys the idea that university president is perhaps not the easiest job in 2025. Political challenges. Financial challenges. The challenges of protecting free speech while at the same time supporting every member of our communities. The challenges of reminding us that the global communities that form the bedrock of the American research university, places like Dartmouth, and Lehigh, and MIT and Harvard and Illinois and Virginia and every research university in between—thrive precisely because they are global communities. 

It's not easy. And I truly am living the dream. Leadership means we don't get to choose our moment. As they say, the moment chooses us.

My engineering education prepared me to think analytically and quantitatively, to break a problem down into its component parts, and to rely on data in making decisions.

My time in the workforce, and particularly my time in the Senate and at Dartmouth and Thayer, helped me learn to communicate with a broader audience, and to see things from a range of perspectives. To appreciate the importance of the intersection of engineering AND so many other things.

You, my friends, are ready and prepared to lead. Your education at this extraordinary institution in engineering AND so many other things has prepared you to navigate any challenges thrown your way. Generative AI. The 4th Industrial Revolution. Politics. Or whatever the future may hold. I am optimistic that we will navigate these moments to create an inclusive and better future for all.

I have the privilege of standing on stages like this, seeing talented students like you, and knowing that we are sending you off fully prepared to take on 'the most responsible positions and the most difficult service.' 

YOU are ready.

Congratulations, Dartmouth Engineering Class of 2025!