Grand Challenges for Engineering

by National Academy of Engineering

A diverse committee of experts from around the world, some of the most accomplished engineers and scientists of their generation, proposed the 14 challenges outlined in this booklet. The panel, which was convened by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE) at the request of the U.S. National Science Foundation, did not rank the challenges selected, nor did it endorse particular approaches to meeting them. Rather than attempt to include every important goal for engineering, the panel chose opportunities that were both achievable and sustainable to help people and the planet thrive. The panel’s
conclusions were reviewed by more than 50 subject-matter experts. In addition, the effort received worldwide input from prominent engineers and scientists, as well as from the general public. Since this report’s release, the findings have inspired numerous events (including Global Grand Challenges Summits in London, Beijing, and Washington DC) and educational initiatives at all levels (such as the NAE Grand Challenges Scholars Program) which you can learn more about at www.engineeringchallenges.org.

The grand challenges:

- Make solar energy economical
- Provide energy from fusion
- Develop carbon sequestration methods
- Manage the nitrogen cycle
- Provide access to clean water
- Restore and improve urban infrastructure
- Advance health informatics
- Engineer better medicines
- Reverse-engineer the brain
- Prevent nuclear terror
- Secure cyberspace
- Enhance virtual reality
- Advance personalized learning
- Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

56 pages, ebook

Published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the Grand Challenges for Engineering website indicate this report was updated in 2017, it appears to have been very lightly revised, at least in content. Thus a few of the fourteen grand challenges, like Enhance Virtual Reality, appear somewhat dated. All in all, the report is still exciting to read -many of the challenges are still grand, worthwhile, inspiring dreams. The website mentioned previously, http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/ is quite active publishing news items on research advances related to these grand challenges.

In 2015, in a summit meeting, 7 of the 18 committee members who formulated the Grand Challenges for Engineering in 2008 reflected on what has happened in the seven years since the grand challenges were first published. These forum reflections have been published as Grand Challenges for Engineering: Imperatives, Prospects, and Priorities, a very slim, and rather disappointing volume published by the National Academies Press. Interestingly, one of the panelists, Calestous Juma mentioned that:

...the Grand Challenges overlap with both the UN Millennium Development Goals and more recent Sustainable Development Goals

a point which is well worth analyzing in more detail.

This new report neither adds much to the 2008 grand challenges' imperatives, nor does it significantly correct or update their prospects, and, just as in 2008, it steers well clear of setting priorities.

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather disappointing report on a summit meeting seven years after the National Academy of Engineering published its 14 grand challenges for engineering...