About the Summit
Engineering Grand Challenges for the 21st Century
Chicago Summit 2010
April 21-22, 2010
Fairmont Hotel, Chicago, Illinois
Clean Water | Carbon, Energy and Climate | Urban Sustainability | Global Health
WHITE PAPER
Written by John L. Anderson, president, Illinois Institute of Technology,
and Dr. Alan Schriesheim, president, Chicago Council on Science and Technology; director emeritus, Argonne National Laboratory
In the year 2000 the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) issued the result of its survey of the 20 most important engineering achievements of the 20th century from the viewpoint of the United States. The list includes the basics of life as we know it today (electrification of homes and businesses, clean water, refrigeration and air conditioning), as well as advances in communications, electronics, materials, medicine, transportation that have changed the way we live. These 20 achievements are listed below, and a discussion is found on the website http://www.greatachievements.org/.
Looking forward, the NAE recently commissioned a committee of engineers, scientists and futurists to solicit ideas related to the “Grand Challenges” facing the global society in the 21st century. A list of the 14 Grand Challenges is also presented below and discussed on the website http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/.
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and Chicago Council on Science and Technology (C2ST), along with our academic and corporate partners1, will co-sponsor a symposium during April 21-22, 2010, on four areas related to several of the 14 Grand Challenges: clean water; carbon, energy and climate; urban sustainability; and global health. The Chicago Summit will be part of a nationwide debate on the Grand Challenges, with symposia on other topics related to the Grand Challenges held across the country (http://summit-grand-challenges.pratt.duke.edu/).
The goals of the Chicago Summit 2010 are:
- Enhance interest in engineering and science and highlight its role in solving major problems facing society.
- Increase the visibility and importance of engineering and science to society in general.
- Enhance student interest in engineering, science and technology entrepreneurship.
- Emphasize the importance of collaborations of engineers and scientists with professionals in business, government, law, and the humanities and social sciences to address the challenges facing society.
Synopses of the four topical areas of the Chicago Summit 2010 are given below.
1 Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Exelon Corporation.
CLEAN WATER
Keynote Speaker: Lord Ernest Ronald Oxburgh, Member, House of Lords, and Member, Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. All of life is based upon water. Insufficient clean water leads to more deaths per year than war. While there is plenty of water in the world, the problem is that either water is not where it is needed or it is not clean or fit for human use. Further, we need relatively little water for drinking and personal use, but use massive quantities for agriculture and industry. “Overcoming the crisis in water and sanitation is one of the greatest human development challenges of the early 21st century,” a recent U.N. report warns. Understanding water in the context of health, the current energy concerns, and life in urban environments is vital.
CARBON, ENERGY AND CLIMATE
Keynote Speaker: Dr.John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy. Humans have long confronted the pollution created by the use of energy. The current challenge is not only the visible soot from wood and coal fires, or smog from poorly combusted gasoline and diesel, but also the invisible greenhouse gases that do not directly affect human health but will impact our environment significantly. Carbon emission contributes to climate changes that affect our water supply and quality. Diminution of human emissions of carbon will either require a difficult decrease in our use of fossil fuels or significant scientific and technological breakthroughs. The increase in atmospheric carbon represents a generational challenge of global importance.
URBAN SUSTAINABILITY
Keynote Speaker: Roger E. Frechette III, PE, President, PositivEnergy Practice. Chicago as with other cities around the world reached a milestone this past year when more than one-half of the world's population resides in an urban environment. There must be an appreciation that health, energy and urban infrastructure are inextricably coupled as cities expand and new cities are designed and built.
GLOBAL HEALTH
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Tachi Yamada, President of Global Health Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Good health is essential for a quality life. A significant fraction of the infrastructure of society (our cities, transportation, water, energy and communications systems, working environments, recreational and educational facilities) is designed to maintain or enhance health. Attacks on good health come from both outside our bodies (e.g., infectious agents, pollutants, and our physical and social environment) as well as within (e.g., genetic predisposition to cancer, heart disease, and neurological disease, etc). Understanding the nature of these ailments and their propensity to occur, along with the engineering and development of effective technologies to manage health (preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic) are critical in understanding our civilization and its continuation on the planet. As such, health is an issue that cuts across all of the engineering grand challenges that we face in this century.
ATTACHMENT 1: Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century:
ATTACHMENT 2: The Grand Challenges to Engineering of the 21st Century: