Dr. Bobby B. Lyle speaks to students at a reception honoring him Wednesday evening at the Huitt-Zollars Pavillion in the J. Lindsay Embrey building. The event was a part of Engineering Week and was sponsored by the SMU Center for Engineering Leadership. (Jordan Chlapecka)

Bobby B. Lyle, namesake of the Lyle School of Engineering, fielded students’ questions Wednesday about Lyle’s dream of a school of “absolute uniqueness.”

Lyle began by telling how his dream came to fruition, with engineering roots at SMU, he was able to make a deal with an assistant dean.

“A young guy came along by the name of Jeffery Orsak that I was able to meet. I was visiting with him one day and I told him I had a deal for him,” Lyle said. “I told him if you will undertake a school of engineering unlike anything we have ever seen but exactly like what an engineering school of the future should be, I will help you do it.”

He said at the time the school was still a vision, the national academies of science and engineering were declaring that the nation had huge deficiencies in these areas.

“We decided to respond,” Lyle said. “We went out and said ‘let’s go out and create the best engineering school in the world, one that is absolutely unique.'”

In the spring 2008 semester the direction of SMU’s school of engineering was defined when Lyle donated the funds necessary to realize his dream of a unique engineering school.

Lyle said he was proud of what has been accomplished by not just creating engineers, but leaders as well.

“We learn in the classroom, what we do is lead,” Lyle said. “We learn engineering to solve the major problems of the world, it is about learning and leading.”

He said the leadership component is one of the top attributes that make the Lyle school so unique. Along with the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works lab, the school will also strive for gender parity, a rarity in the engineering community.

Lyle said that the school’s innovative approach is already garnering attention from top engineering schools in the nation. Schools such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University, and Vanderbilt University are all taking notice and trying to copy SMU’s leadership model.

Lyle opened up and took questions to give students a chance to get to know him better. One student sought Lyle’s advice on how to better position himself as an engineer in a turbulent economy.

“The first thing you have to do is figure out what you want,” Lyle said. “You have to think of your job as a dream, what makes you shoot out of bed in the morning and not want to go to sleep? Start there and strive for it.”

Lyle put leadership as one of the major components that make the school unique, but leadership to him is much more than turning visions into reality.

“It isn’t just getting out in front of the parade and running faster than everyone,” he said. “It starts with a vision of making a difference and articulating that vision and implementing it. Along with that a good leader is also a good follower, you don’t have to lead everyday, it is ok to follow and support.”

Lyle discussed the main issues holding back the Lyle School of Engineering, and reality was at the top of the list.

He said it would be amazing if “you could do things as fast as you can think of them,” but in reality financial issues among others slow it down.

He said students can get involved in making the dream a reality.

“Get in the game. Do not stand on the sidelines and watch it all happen. Get in the classroom and press for excellence,” Lyle said. “If you aren’t you are leaving something valuable on the field.”

Lyle got personal and said he is much like anyone in what makes a perfect day for him. He said he only wants to make a difference, doing so would make for the perfect day, along with ending the day with a glass of wine with Dean Orsak.

Lyle is not involved with the engineering program at SMU for the “glitz and glamour” but to “play any roll” to make a difference.

“I just want to help make this happen, if that’s standing in a closet and whispering out ‘that’s fine,’ or if its jumping in front of the parade, I will play any roll to make this happen,” Lyle said. “I believe in what we are doing.”