Video: Keller Center: My idea of a better world

By Office of Development Communications on May 4, 2009, 3:55 p.m.

The Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education focuses on preparing Princeton students to be leaders in an increasingly complex and technology-driven society.

Dennis Keller, who graduated from Princeton in 1963 with a degree in economics, and his wife, Constance Templeton Keller, were honored during a dedication ceremony Thursday, April 16, for endowing a center in Princeton's School of Engineering and Applied Science. The Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education is a cross-disciplinary initiative focused on preparing Princeton students to be leaders in an increasingly complex and technology-driven society.

New center inspires and prepares students to be leaders in a technological age .

Responding to a national need to rethink the teaching of engineering, Princeton University has created the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education, an initiative to better prepare all students -- both engineers and non-engineers -- to be leaders in an increasingly complex, technology-driven society.

Keller gift of $25 million to support innovation in engineering education .

Recognizing an international need for leaders who can harness technology to solve societal problems, alumnus and innovator in education Dennis J. Keller and his wife, Constance Templeton Keller, have given Princeton University $25 million to strengthen links between engineering and the liberal arts.

Princeton establishes engineering collaborations with German universities .

Princeton's Keller Center and International Internship Program have developed a new research and teaching collaboration and student exchange initiative between Princeton and ConRuhr, a consortium of three universities in Germany's Ruhr region. The program aims to expose engineering students to international approaches to technology, research and leadership, while giving them hands-on research experience in their field of study.

Preparing to Lead: Internships pair students with executives .

Mechanical and aerospace engineering major Zhen Xia is accustomed to solving problems that have cut-and-dried solutions, but an internship at IBM this past summer taught him how to approach problems that don't have one right answer. As part of a new internship program, Xia spent three months working with senior marketing executives at the IBM corporate offices in Somers, N.Y. From analyzing the brand's image to establishing a business case for a new product launch, he found himself in the midst of the complicated intricacies of the business world.

Arts proposal and fundraising at top of Tilghman's agenda .

Alternative locations being considered for new arts space on campus will enable the University to provide a "marvelous" home for Princeton's Lewis Center for the Arts, President Shirley M. Tilghman said in a meeting Monday (Feb. 14) afternoon. But the site will not have the benefits to the wider community of the original location at the corner of Alexander Street and University Place, she added.

Valedictorian, salutatorian selected .

Holger Staude, an economics major from Frankfurt, Germany, will be the valedictorian for Princeton's class of 2009, and Stephen Hammer, a classics major from Carrollton, Texas, will be the Latin salutatorian.