Implementinig Tomorrows Technologies: Lessons Learned from the Evolution of Infrastructure

Hosted by the Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy "IMPLEMENTING TOMORROW'S TECHNOLOGIES: Lessons Learned from the Evolution of Infrastructure" Joel A. TarrRichard S. Caliguiri University Professor of History and Policy, Carnegie Mellon UniversityFebruary 12, 2008, 12:00 noon, Ralph & Goldy Lewis Hall 101, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Most of the aging infrastructure the country strives to maintain is based on models from the 18th and 19th centuries. Because of this, we need to think about future infrastructure that is less energy-intensive and that can also have positive environmental, health, and social benefits. Moving beyond what we know to what we need could lead to high financial and policy-making anxiety but we have done this many times before and valuable lessons have been learned. Historically, movement from one technology to another, more advanced system, has involved different system perspectives, different labor effects, and different regulations. Professor Joel Tarr of Carnegie Mellon University will trace transportation from the horse to electric traction and the automobile; waste disposal, from cesspools and privy vaults to networked sewers; and energy, from manufactured gas to electricity for lighting. Drawing on his singular perspective as a historian of technology, he will illuminate some of the choices and trade-offs we will face as we confront an uncertain future. Joel A. Tarr studies the environmental history of cities and the history and impact of their technological systems. He is particularly interested in using history to understand contemporary problems. His most recent book, The Horse in the City: Living Machines in the 19th Century, (2007) won honorable mention for the Lewis Mumford Prize of the Society for American Urban and Regional Planning History. The Search for the Ultimate Sink: Urban Pollution in Historical Perspective, was named an "outstanding Academic Book for 1997" by Choice; and his edited volume, Devastation and Renewal: An Environmental History of Pittsburgh and Its Region, received a Certificate of Commendation from the American Association of State and Local History in 2004. In 1992 Carnegie Mellon University awarded him the Robert Doherty Prize for Contributions to Excellence in Education, and in 2003 he was elected a University Professor.

Location: Ralph And Goldy Lewis Hall (RGL) - 101

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Georgia Lum