Session Introduction

Sustainability

Foremost among the Grand Challenges we face are those that must be met to ensure the future itself. The Earth is a planet of finite resources, and its growing population currently consumes them at a rate that cannot be sustained. Economical sources of clean and renewable energy must be found while ways of reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuels are developed. Engineers must also design countermeasures for disruption of the nitrogen cycle, while maintaining the ability of agriculture to produce adequate food supplies. And, while modern technologies can provide access to clean water, this remains a major problem in many parts of the world.

Restore and Improve Urban Infrastructure

Engineers of the 21st century face the formidable challenge of modernizing the fundamental structures that support our world’s civilization. Creating sustainable water systems and developing means of transportation that make individual vehicle travel, mass transit, bicycling, and walking all as easy and efficient as possible are just some of the challenges. In tackling these issues, engineers must have a clear vision for the aesthetic values that go beyond mere function and also contribute to the joy of living.

Health

While many of the health scourges of the past have been controlled and even eliminated by modern medicine, some – such as malaria and cancer – remain deadly. At the same time, newer problems, such as antibiotic resistance, have emerged. New medical technologies and methods are needed address these problems and further enhance modern diagnosis and treatment capabilities. The promise of personalizing medicines, advanced ways of using health information, and a better understanding of how our bodies work give hope for a healthier world.

Energy

Sunshine has long offered a tantalizing source of environmentally friendly power, bathing the Earth with more energy each hour than the planet’s population consumes in a year. But capturing that power, converting it into useful forms, and especially storing it for a rainy day, poses provocative engineering challenges. Our world needs engineers to explore ways of making solar energy economical as well as other breakthrough energy solutions, like nuclear fusion, so that society is able to maintain a healthy and happy life for people in the centuries to come.

Joy of Living

The Grand Challenges for Engineering are not just focused on problem solving, but also on seizing opportunities to create a more enriching life for all. Providing new tools for investigating our world, from the vastness of the cosmos to the inner intricacy of atoms, will help further the spirit of curiosity in individual minds and advance technological growth. Improved methods of teaching, including ways of tailoring learning to individual propensities and abilities on a mass scale, can help translate knowledge into innovations that create a more joyous world.

Education

Improved methods of teaching, including ways of tailoring learning to individual propensities and abilities on a mass scale, can help translate knowledge into innovations that create a more joyous world. We also need to train and educate both teachers and students through new education models, like the Grand Challenge Scholars Program, that focus on developing engineers who will help meet the biggest challenges of our time and lead us toward a better future.

Security and Resilience

Engineering solutions are badly needed to counter the violence of terrorists as well as the destructiveness of earthquakes, hurricanes, disease epidemics and other natural dangers. Technologies for early detection of all such threats, and rapid deployment of countermeasures, are urgently needed. While it may not be as life-threatening, reducing vulnerability to assaults in cyberspace such as identity theft and computer viruses designed to disrupt Internet traffic are important to maintaining quality of life in the modern world.