"We are in the early stages of the fourth industrial revolution with fantastic advances in every field - witness driverless cars, autonomous drones, robots, 3D printing, gene editing, artificial intelligence, and affordable space travel," said Venkatesan. "Industrial revolutions are disruptive - they destroy established firms and jobs and create new ones. The fourth industrial revolution promises to be even more disruptive than the previous ones because we are tinkering with life itself. What does the fourth industrial revolution mean for societies, for jobs, and for how you think about your life and career in the coming decades?"

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The lecture was held in the Purdue Memorial Union East and West Faculty Lounges, with a reception following. Over 130 people attended, including Eyal Barash, son of the late Moshe M. Barash, and Eyal's wife Gabrielle.

The Moshe M. Barash lecture is named for the late Ransburg Professor Emeritus of Manufacturing Engineering and Industrial Engineering. A leader in the field of manufacturing science and engineering, Barash retired from Purdue in 1992 and died in 2006. Among his major contributions was his pioneering research into the use of computers for factory planning and scheduling, including automatic process planning and computerized manufacturing systems. Barash also made significant contributions to the automated design of manufacturing systems, precision engineering, robot applications, and computer-aided manufacturing.