Texas Instruments futurist Gene Frantz will kick off National Engineers Week at UT Dallas on Monday, Feb. 21, followed by a full schedule of events that include a robotics lecture, a Lego-building contest, visitors from several top high-tech companies and an opportunity for engineering and computer science students to turn the tables on faculty.

Frantz will speak Monday at 4 p.m. about the future of transportation technology. One of an elite group of people who have reached the highest rung on TI’s technical ladder, he will examine how transportation may change by 2050.

“I picked that year because it is beyond my career horizon and certainly far beyond a 2011 audience’s memory retention,” he said. “That means I can be bold. But mostly I’ll spend the time asking questions.”

The robotics lecture will feature Dr. Mark W. Spong, dean of the University’s Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. On Wednesday at 4 p.m. he’ll discuss an air-hockey-playing robot that his team built at the 
University of Illinois. That will be followed by a screening 
of “Way of the Puck,” an intriguing documentary about air hockey and its passionate community of players.

Then on Thursday afternoon the University’s engineering and computer science students will get to test faculty for a change. Students are encouraged to pose questions to a brave team of five professors who have offered to take on the toughest engineering and computer science questions students can dish out.

Other events will include visitors from Tektronix Communications, Cisco Systems and BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion plus student tours of Lineage Power and Lennox Climate Control. For complete details about what’s planned for the week, visit the Engineers Week website.