Future Vision: George Pappas Ushers in New Era for ESE

Innovation is guided by instinct, and leading scholars learn to trust their own, turning curiosity into a driving passion. “You follow your nose—you do well at what you enjoy and you enjoy what you do well,” says George Pappas, the newly named Chair of the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering (ESE).

Pappas has parlayed his own talents into a highly accomplished academic and research career, focusing on embedding intelligence into systems, including cars, airplanes and buildings. It was an Apple II personal computer that first piqued Pappas’ interest as a young student in Greece. “I wanted to know not just how it worked for the user, but what was happening inside the box. When I started taking classes in engineering, I learned that computers were useful, not just for word processing and sending emails and playing games, but as a way of changing or impacting the world.”

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