Yesterday at the AAAS meeting in Boston, the National Academy of Engineering announced their Grand Challenges for Engineering. These challenges would transform the very nature of our society, transforming the society at least as much as the great achievements of the 20th century - allowing for responsible and precise control over information and natural resources in ways that would surpass any other time in human history. The 14 challenges presented are:

• Make solar energy economical - The right innovations could help make solar energy a viable energy source ... which is nice, since it's a fully renewable resource that could provide 10,000 times more energy than all the commercial energy used by humanity.
• Provide energy from fusion - Of course, if solar energy can provide that much power, it would also help to tap into the source of that power directly: nuclear fusion. Such power could provide vast energy without the radioactive wastes generated in such quantities by nuclear fission.
• Develop carbon sequestration methods - While the exact degree of humanity's involvement in global warming may be in question, at least in political circles, the ability to prevent humanity's waste carbon from entering the atmosphere would be a great achivements.
• Manage the nitrogen cycle - Improvements in waste reclamation and fertilization systems to balance the nitrogen cycle could turn famine-stricken regions into breadbaskets.
• Provide access to clean water - Despite the abundance of water, there are many regions on the Earth where access to clean drinking water is creating a crisis. Better water purification systems could help the health situations in many of these societies.
• Restore & improve urban infrastructures - The American Society of Civil Engineers gave an average grade of D to the infrastructure in U.S. cities. Improvements in these infrastructures - from waste management to transportation - could help make urban environments more sustainable, and more enjoyable.
• Advance health informatics - Fear of international pandemics or bio-chemical attacks makes the accurate tracking and distribution of health information a major concern.
• Engineer better medicines - With antibiotic resistant strains of diseases springing up around the world, the need for better medicines is self-evident.
• Reverse-engineer the brain - A complete understanding of the brain would not only help us cure illnesses of the brain, but would open up whole new avenues of technological development ... machines which could interact directly with the brain.
• Prevent nuclear terror - Many believe it is only a matter of time until the nightmare scenario of nuclear terrorism is realized ... although it's possible that advances in technology could help detect or prevent such an attack.
• Secure cyberspace - In addition to nuclear terror, the concern over information terrorism, including financial terrorism, drives a strong need for increases in internet security.
• Enhance virtual reality - A true virtual reality environment would help with training people for jobs in hostile environments, as well as for treatment of certain illnesses and whole new possibilities in communication technologies.
• Advance personalized learning - The educational debate in the U.S. over topics such as the No Child Left Behind Act, vouchers, & homeschooling make one thing abundantly clear - not everyone learns the same way. Figuring out how to effectively personalize learning systems to maximum effect would be a fantastic achievement.
• Engineer the tools of scientific discovery - Engineering and science are intimately linked together, and the challenge of supporting scientific discovery is a fine capstone to the theoretical and experiments required to make these challenges a reality.

Related Information:

• National Academy of Engineering - Grand Challenges for Engineering
• MSNBC - Engineering's Greatest Challenge: Our Survival
• National Academy of Engineering - Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century
• About.com Physics - Sources of Power Production