Changing the Conversation

Many Lives of Engineers

By Adam Smith

For engineers like us, making cakes is both a chance to explore our artistic sides and to apply engineering principles to something artistic!

— Trina Gregory, senior lecturer, USC Viterbi, and Jason Gregory

Improvised music has shown me the value of letting go, pushing creative frontiers, and not worrying about possibly failing in the end. In my mind, the best music and research is often the result of being willing to take risks and not being hampered by one’s own comfort zone.

— George Ban-Weiss, USC Viterbi assistant professor, Sonny Astani Deptartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Leveraging physics to maneuver my body to control momentum in my spins, balance difficult poses, and combining all this with artistic expression, feeds my addiction to the aerial arts.

— Josie Manzano, B.S. ISE ’88 on aerial fitness

Ballet is very technical, and like with engineering, you have to have a strong foundation on the basics before you can learn the hard, fun things.

— `Christina Milanes, USC Viterbi senior, co-founder, USC DANSCOLLABORATIVE