Grand Challenges for Engineering in the New Millennium

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Grand Challenges for Engineering in theNew
Millennium

• Leah H. Jamieson
• 2007 IEEE President and CEO
• John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering and
  Ransburg Distinguished Professor of Electrical
  and Computer Engineering Purdue University
• National Academy of Engineering
• Convocation of Engineering Societies
• 07 May 2007

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Engineering in theGlobal Societal Context

• Engineering and the condition of the world are
  intimately connected
• IEEE tenets
• Advance global prosperity
• For the benefit of humanity

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Engineering Grand Challenges

• Grand Challenges are tied to basicneeds of
  humankind starting withfood, water, shelter, and
  security
• Challenges are growing and becoming more
  immediate

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Many Grand Challenges are Inter-related
Megacities
Disaster Recovery
Energy
Security
Healthcare
Environment
Examples of Where IEEE is Engaged
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Grand Challenge Megacities

• Today, for the first time in history, more humans
  now live in cities than not.
• By 2010 there will be 21 megacities, with
  populations over 10 million.
• The pace of urbanization is creating strains on
  every component of the urban environment and
  underlying infrastructures.
• In the next half century, all urban growth is
  going to occur in the developing world where
  infrastructure is often weak, antiquated or
  insufficient, if it exists at all.
• Risks associated with natural disasters are
  higher for densely populated areas.

National Geographic Growth of large cities.
1950, 2000, 2015
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Tokyo Natural Disasters
Shanghai Waste Water Management
Megacities IEEE Spectrum Report
Mumbai Energy supply distribution
Sao Paulo Traffic, Air Pollution
New York Crime Terrorism
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Addressing Megacity Issues

• Exploring a Technology and the Megacity
  Conference
• Looking at urban issues across the breadth of our
  disciplines
• Topics would range from power, transportation,
  communication, sanitation and pollution, to
  distributed home health care, education, safety
  and security, and disaster management
• Involve government and political representatives,
  industry leaders, philanthropic organizations in
  addition to academics and researchers

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Grand ChallengeThe Environment and Earth
ObservationGEOSS -- A Global, Coordinated,
Comprehensive Sustained System of Earth Observing
Systems
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The Environment and Earth Observation

• IEEE - one of 44 international organizations
  across 60 countries that created GEOSS in 2005
• Year of hurricanes, tsunamis, droughts, wildfires
• Linking millions of established national,
  regional and international observation sources
  and datasets into a single network
• Tracking environmental changes in land, oceans,
  atmosphere and ecosystems worldwide
• GEOSS Goals
• Enhance prediction of the behavior of the Earth
  system
• Protect the health and well-being of the worlds
  peoples and economies

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Three User Views of GEOSS
Modeling, and Data Management Systems
Health
Disaster
Energy
Climate
The Nine Socio Benefit Areas
Water
Weather
Biodiversity
Observation Systems Worldwide
Ecosystem
Agriculture
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IEEE Committee on Earth Observation

• IEEE Goals
• Support Group on Earth Observations (GEO)
• Architecture, Users
• Increase awareness of EO issues through
• Workshops (10 in 2007)
• New publications
• Journal -- Earth Observation Applications
• www.Earthzine.org -- Online publication for
  scientists and public
• Student Competition
• Design an Earth Observation game
• Lead GEO standards efforts
• Establish GEOSS Standards System of Systems
• Create registry of existing standards (completed)
• Launch Standards and Interoperability Forum (SIF)
  for introduction of standards not in the registry
  and development of new standards
• Coordinate international standards organizations

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• Similar highly interconnected graphs in security,
  energy, healthcare

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Thinking Differently

• Traditional view is to organize by technical
  domain - e,g. power engineering
• Creating solutions for grand challenges requires
  involving broader sectors of technology to tackle
  inter-connected problems
• To succeed, we need involvement of diverse group
  from academia, industry, governments, NGOs,
  politics policy, professional societies,
  philanthropic organizations, etc.

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How IEEE is Tackling Grand Challenges

• Considering Future Boston project with MIT
• Considering Conference of the Future concept
  using the Web in new ways to engage participants
  as problem-solving game players
• Exploring areas of healthcare and natural and
  manmade disaster mitigation and recovery with the
  UN Foundation
• Industry-sponsored interactive conference that
  will spawn individual workshops and ongoing
  online collaboration
• IEEE Electricity 2030 workshop (Summer 2008)
• To address a sustainable energy infrastructure
• Goal Create a technology, policy, and financial
  framework to explore alternate scenarios

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How IEEE is Addressing Grand Challenges

• Discussions with MIT about the Future Boston
  project intended to create a Science City within
  Boston to attract young professionals and
  entrepreneurs to remain in the area.
• Considering Conference of the Future concept
  using the Web in new ways to engage participants
  as problem-solving game players

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How IEEE is Addressing Grand Challenges

• Exploring with the UN Foundation a more
  systematic approach to applying technology to
  solve problems associated with health care and
  natural and manmade disaster mitigation and
  recovery
• Concept Industry-sponsored interactive
  conference to establish a framework that will
  spawn individual workshops with ongoing online
  collaboration

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How IEEE Is Addressing Grand Challenges

• IEEE Electricity 2030 workshop(Summer 08)
• To address ways to make our energy infrastructure
  sustainable
• Goal Create a technology, policy and financial
  framework to explore alternate scenarios to
• Reduce use of energy
• Replace fossil fuel loads
• Increase penetration of non-carbon sustainable
  resources such as wind, solar and nuclear energy
• 30-50 percent change by 2030

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• Two introspective grand challenges
• Some student views

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Introspective Grand Challenge 1

• How will we teach / how will they learn all that
  is needed for 21st century careers?
• ABET a-k communication, teamwork,
  professional/ethical standards, lifelong
  learning, global/economic/environmental/societal
  issues,

• Boeing Attributes of an Engineercritical
  thinking, systems perspective,
• The Engineer of 2020 ingenuity,creativity,
  business, leadership,flexibility,
• Technical depth and breadth

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Introspective Grand Challenge 1

• How will we teach / how will they learn all that
  is needed for 21st century careers?
• ABET a-k communication, teamwork,
  professional/ethical standards, lifelong
  learning, global/economic/environmental/societal
  issues,

• Boeing Attributes of an Engineercritical
  thinking, systems perspective,
• The Engineer of 2020 ingenuity,creativity,
  business, leadership,flexibility,
• Technical depth and breadth

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Introspective Grand Challenge 2

• Attracting an engineering workforce that will
  allow us to bring to bear full richness of
  diverse ideas in addressing these grand, complex,
  global problems

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Acting Differently

• Work in the space of young people, outside our
  usual space
• Create our own social networks around big problem
  areas
• Develop engaging projects
• IEEE CS International Design Competition - search
  rescue
• GEOSS game challenge
• Establish/encourage participation in programs to
  reach pre-university population
• Contests - Future Cities, robotics, etc
• Connect engineering to society
• TryEngineering.org
• Teacher in-service programs

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Some Student Views

• What will be your greatest challenges in your
  21st century career?
• Managing career with personal life job search,
  work modalities
• Staying current
• Global marketplace, with the product
  design/development process spread geographically
  around the world
• Integrating the work from many specialists
  specialties
• Connecting technology policy
• Communicating

• In what areas will we see the greatest
  engineering achievements in the 21st century?
• Environment
• Population space travel
• Disaster preparedness relief seismic
  prediction
• Energy alternatives
• Universal healthcare
• Terrorism, security
• Nanotechnology
• Intelligent systems
• Fully integrated media

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Key Collaboration for the Future