The Grand Challenges

Introduction Improve Solar Energy Engineer Better Medicines Reverse-Engineer the Brain Provide Access to Clean Water Carbon Sequestration Secure Cyberspace

Introduction to the Grand Challenges for Engineering

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Committee has identified 14 areas awaiting engineering solutions in the 21st century. Six of these challenges will be discussed in this site, to include improvements of solar energy, medicine, the brain, clean water access, carbon sequestration, and Internet security.

Improvements in solar energy are key to our future: Only 1% of the world's total energy is solar energy, however it has the potential to provide much more. In the area of medicine, engineers are continually developing new systems to use genetic information, sense small changes in the body, assess new drugs, and deliver vaccines. The brain is another area of interest for the future, as engineers are attempting to create computers capable of emulating human intelligence.

Lack of access to clean water is responsible for more deaths in the world than war. About 1 out of every 6 people living today do not have adequate access to water. A fifth area of interest is limiting the amount of carbon dioxide emission. One of the largest contributors to global warming is carbon dioxide emissions, and therefore carbon sequestration, or the process of eliminating excess carbon dioxide by means of capturing and storing it, is a prime concern. The last challenge is internet security, or cyberspace security. This is not merely preventing identity theft-- this engineering concentrates on the improvement of critical systems in banking, national security, and physical infrastructure.