March 2008

Panel Names Top Challenges
What engineering challenges need to be addressed to help people and the planet thrive?

A committee of leading technical thinkers has released a list of 14 challenges for engineering in the 21st century.

"Tremendous advances in quality of life have come from improved technology in areas such as farming and manufacturing," says committee member and Google co-founder Larry Page. "If we focus our effort on the important grand challenges of our age, we can hugely improve the future."

The panel, formed by the National Academy of Engineering at the request of the National Science Foundation, was established in 2006 and met several times to discuss and develop the list of challenges. Through an interactive Web site, the effort received worldwide input from prominent engineers and scientists, as well as from the general public, over a one-year period. The panel's conclusions were reviewed by more than 50 subject matter experts.

The final choices fall into four themes that are essential for humanity to flourish: sustainability, health, reducing vulnerability, and joy of living. The committee did not attempt to include every important challenge, nor did it endorse particular approaches to meeting those selected. Rather than focusing on predictions or gee-whiz gadgets, the goal was to identify what needs to be done to help people and the planet thrive.

"We chose engineering challenges that we feel can, through creativity and commitment, be realistically met, most of them early in this century," says committee chair and former Secretary of Defense William Perry. "Some can be, and should be, achieved as soon as possible."

The committee did not rank the challenges but is offering the public an opportunity to vote on which one they think is most important and to provide comments at www.engineeringchallenges.org.

The Grand Challenges
Make solar energy affordable
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 for scientific discovery

Vote on the challenge you think is most important or provide comments at www.engineeringchallenges.org.