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About the Engineering Grand Challenges

With input from people around the world the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has identified the Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st Century. The NAE Grand Challenges Scholars Program is a combined curricular and extra-curricular program that helps to prepare the next generation of college graduates to solve these grand challenges.

The Learning Outcomes for Miami’s Grand Challenges Scholars Program are:

  1. Research or Project: Demonstrate the ability to undertake research or a capstone project related to a Grand Challenge.
  2. Interdisciplinary Component: Demonstrate skills in, or knowledge of, working at the boundary between technical and non-technical areas when solving a Grand Challenge.
  3. Entrepreneurship: Demonstrate business or market-related skills and knowledge in solving a Grand Challenge.
  4. Global Dimension: Demonstrate skills in, or knowledge of, global issues in solving a Grand Challenge.
  5. Service Learning: Demonstrate ability to work within, or knowledge of, the social context in bringing to bear solutions to a Grand Challenge.

The 14 Grand Challenges are: 

  1. Advance Personalized Learning
  2. Make Solar Energy Economical
  3. Enhance Virtual Reality
  4. Reverse-Engineer the Brain
  5. Engineer Better Medicines
  6. Advance Health Informatics
  7. Restore and Improve Urban Infrastructure
  8. Secure Cyberspace
  9. Provide Access to Clean Water
  10. Provide Energy from Fusion
  11. Prevent Nuclear Terror
  12. Manage the Nitrogen Cycle
  13. Develop Carbon Sequestration Methods
  14. Engineer the Tools of Scientific Discovery