The Pennsylvania State University

School of Engineering Design, Technology, and Professional Programs

Global Engineering Design

Session 3
GLOBAL ENGINEERING CHALLENGES
Ivan E. Esparragoza, PhD

Outline

Engineering a Transformation Agent

21st Century Challenge

US Grand Challenges for Engineering

What is Engineering?

REALITIES

According to its function:

IDEAS

What is Engineering?
Engineering is constantly transforming the world

What is Engineering?
Engineering is constantly transforming the world

576 songs
in 195 Kg

15,000
songs in
156 grs

What is Engineering?
Engineering is constantly transforming the world

1,700
words per
hour

Thousand of
documents
per hour

What is Engineering?
Engineering is constantly transforming the world

Ford First
The Quadricycle
FordCar
Mustang
2010
1896

What is Engineering?
Engineering is constantly transforming the world

What is Engineering?
Engineering is constantly transforming the world

Motorola Cell
Phone 1983
$3,500

I-Phone
2012
$199

Great Engineering Achievements

1.

Electrification

11. Highways

2.

Automobile

12. Spacecraft

3. Airplane

13. Internet

4.

14. Imaging

5.

Water Supply and

Distribution
Electronics

15. Household Appliances

6. Radio and Television

16. Health Technologies

7. Agricultural Mechanization

17. Petroleum and

Petrochemical Technologies

8.

Computers

18. Laser and Fiber Optics

9.

Telephone

19. Nuclear technologies

10. Air Conditioning and

Refrigeration

20. High-performance Materials

Period of intense change.

None of the following existed as recently as 1980

The internet
Cell phone
Personal computers
Fiber optics
E-mail
GPS
Portable computer
CDs
Digital camera
Micro-Electrical-Mechanical
Systems (MEMS)
DNA fingerprinting

Air bags
ATM
Advanced batteries
Hybrid cars
Organic Light Emitting Diodes
(OLEDs)
Display panel
HDTV
Space shuttle
Nanotechnology
Flash memory
Voice mail

21st Century Challenges

Population
Water
Food
Energy
Health
Environment
Terrorism/Conflict
Climate change
Biodiversity
Wellbeing
Sustainability

Source: Sir David King, Chief Scientific Adviser to UK

Government, World Bank, 11 July 2007

National Grand Challenges

The National Academy of Engineering identified 14
engineering grand challenges:

Make solar energy

economical

Engineer better medicines

Secure cyberspace

Engineering the tools of

scientific discovery

Manage the nitrogen cycle

Advance health informatics

Prevent nuclear terror

Advance personalized
learning

Develop carbon
sequestration methods

Restore and improve urban

infrastructure

Reverse-engineer the brain

Enhance virtual reality

Provide energy from fusion

Provide access to clean
water

National Grand Challenges

Make solar energy economical: Solar energy provides less
than 1% of the worlds total energy, but it has the potential to
provide much, much more.
Manage the nitrogen cycle: Engineers can help restore
balance to the nitrogen cycle with better fertilization technologies
and by capturing and recycling waste.
Advance health informatics: Stronger health information
systems not only improve everyday medical visits, but they are
essential to counter pandemic and biological or chemical attacks.
Prevent nuclear terror: The need for technologies to prevent
and respond to a nuclear attack is growing.

Advance personalized learning: Instruction can be

individualized based on learning styles, speed and interests to
make learning more reliable.

National Grand Challenges

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.
Provide access to clean water: The worlds water supplies are
facing new threats; affordable, advance technologies could make
a difference for millions of people around the world.
Engineer better medicines: Engineers are developing new
systems to use genetic information, sense small changes in the
body, assess new drugs, and deliver vaccines.
Secure cyberspace: It is more than preventing identity theft.
Critical systems in banking, national security, and physical
infrastructure might be at risk.
Engineering the tools of scientific discovery: In the century
ahead, engineers will continue to be partners with scientist in the
great quest for understanding many unanswered questions of
nature.

National Grand Challenges

Develop carbon sequestration methods: Engineers are
working on ways to capture and store excess carbon dioxide to
prevent the global warming.
Restore and improve urban infrastructure: Good design and
advance materials can improve transportation, water, and waste
systems, and also create more sustainable urban environments.
Reverse-engineer the brain: The intersection of engineering
and neuroscience promise great advances in health care,
manufacturing, and communication.
Enhance virtual reality: The virtual reality creates the illusion of
actually being in a different space. It can be used for training,
treatment, and communication.
Source: http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/