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The 14 Grand Challenges

National Academy of Engineering

Solving the World’s Toughest Problems

Engineers make good things happen and want to solve the pressing challenges facing society, today and in the future.

As an engineer, you will help solve the problems in health and medicine, security, environment, and many other multidisciplinary areas.

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With input from people around the world, an international group of leading technological thinkers identified the Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st century. These 14 game-changing goals fall into four cross-cutting themes, all directed at improving life on our planet: Sustainability, Health, Security, and Joy of Living.

Read about the National Academy’s findings on the 14 Grand Challenges in detail to learn more about your possible role in helping to make the world a better place.

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“The Grand Challenges set a grander scope for our discipline by changing the conversation about engineering, by providing key aspirational goals and by inspiring the new generations about the importance of engineering as the enabling discipline of our times.”

Dean Yannis YortsosUSC Viterbi School of Engineering

Sustainability

Make Solar Energy More Economical

Solar energy provides less than 1% of the world’s total energy, but it has the potential to provide much, much more.  Learn more through the NAE Report.

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. Learn more through the NAE Report.

Develop Carbon Sequestration Methods

Engineers are working on ways to capture and store excess carbon dioxide to prevent global warming. Learn more through the NAE Report.

Manage the Nitrogen Cycle

Engineers can help restore balance to the nitrogen cycle with better fertilization technologies and by capturing and recycling waste. Learn more through the NAE Report.

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. Learn more through the NAE Report.

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. Learn more through the NAE Report.

Health

Engineer Better Medicines

Engineers are developing new systems to use genetic information, sense small changes in the body, assess new drugs, and deliver vaccines. Learn more through the NAE Report.

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. Learn more through the NAE Report.

Reverse Engineer the Brain

The intersection of engineering and neuroscience promises great advances in health care, manufacturing, and communication. Learn more through the NAE Report.

Security

Secure Cyberspace

It’s more than preventing identity theft. Critical systems in banking, national security, and physical infrastructure may be at risk. Learn more through the NAE Report.

Prevent Nuclear Terror

The need for technologies to prevent and respond to a nuclear attack is growing. Learn more through the NAE Report.

Joy of Living

Enhancing Virtual Reality

True virtual reality creates the illusion of actually being in a difference space. It can be used for training, treatment, and communication. Learn more through the NAE Report.

Advancing Personalized Learning

Instruction can be individualized based on learning styles, speeds, and interests to make learning more reliable. Learn more through the NAE Report.

Engineering the tools for 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. Learn more through the NAE Report.

USC Viterbi & The Grand Challenges

Learn more about our research areas focused on the Grand Challenges as well as our undergraduate program allowing you to be designated as a Viterbi Grand Challenges Scholar.