• Advance personalized learning Instruction can be individualized based on learning styles, speeds, and interests to make learning more reliable.
  • Make solar energy economical Solar energy provides less than 1% of the world's total energy, but it has the potential to provide much, much more.
  • Enhance virtual reality True virtual reality creates the illusion of actually being in a different space. It can be used for training, treatment, and communication.
  • Reverse-engineer the brain The intersection of engineering and neuroscience promises great advances in health care, manufacturing, and communication.
  • Engineer better medicines Engineers are developing new systems to use genetic information, sense small changes in the body, assess new drugs, and deliver vaccines.
  • Advance health informatics Stronger health information systems not only improve everyday medical visits, but they are essential to counter pandemics and biological or chemical attacks.
  • Restore and improve urban infrastructure Good design and advanced materials can improve transportation and energy, water, and waste systems, and also create more sustainable urban environments.
  • Secure cyberspace It's more than preventing identity theft. Critical systems in banking, national security, and physical infrastructure may be at risk.
  • Provide access to clean water The world's water supplies are facing new threats; affordable, advanced technologies could make a difference for millions of people around the world.
  • Provide energy from fusion Human-engineered fusion has been demonstrated on a small scale. The challenge is to scale up the process to commercial proportions, in an efficient, economical, and environmentally benign way.
  • Manage the nitrogen cycle Engineers can help restore balance to the nitrogen cycle with better fertilization technologies and by capturing and recycling waste.
  • Prevent nuclear terror The need for technologies to prevent and respond to a nuclear attack is growing.
  • Develop carbon sequestration methods Engineers are working on ways to capture and store excess carbon dioxide to prevent global warming.
  • Engineer the tools of scientific discovery In the century ahead, engineers will continue to be partners with scientists in the great quest for understanding many unanswered questions of nature.
Shape the Future
Previous Summits
Committee Member Spotlight
Wesley Harris
Wesley Harris
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Wesley Harris is a member of the Committee on Grand Challenges for Engineering.
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Watch the Video
  • Grand Challenges High School
    Students at Tesla STEM High School in Redmond, WA and Thomas A. Edison High School in Fairfax, VA are inspired by the National Academy of Engineering's 14 Grand Challenges for Engineering.
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  • 2015 NAE Forum: Grand Challenges; Part 1
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  • 2015 NAE Forum: Grand Challenges; Part 2
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Grand challenges in the news
Call for Engineering Action on the COVID-19 Crisis

While the current COVID-19 crisis is separating us physically, it also compels us to work together to address its accompanying societal and economic challenges, ranging from arresting the contagion to relieving the health care stress to production of vaccines to reimagining life in today’s remote working and learning environment. These challenges are ideally suited for engineers, but the first step is bringing together people with great ideas. This project provides a mechanism for that to happen.

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Working Together on the Global Grand Challenges

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