June 2008

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The Missing Grand Challenge

To recruit and inspire the people who will invent the future, we have to raise the public's perception of engineering.

by Guruprasad Madhavan, Barbara Oakley, and Luis Kun

When you go to the grocery store, you carry a list so you can concentrate on the important things you really need.

Rice? Check.

Onions? Check.

Chocolate ice cream? If you're a chocoholic, you might check that one twice.

People—and organizations, for that matter—just love to make lists. For instance, nine years ago the United Nations put together a list of the Millennium Development Goals to combat major issues such as poverty, illiteracy, infectious diseases, and environmental sustainability. And, in 2003, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation came up with a list of 14 Grand Challenges in Global Health that was soon modified and expanded by the Oxford Health Alliance. Similarly, in February this year, an expert panel of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering put forth a list containing 14 Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st Century.

The challenges on all these lists sweep across broad themes of sustainability, vulnerability, health, and quality of life. Some of the world's most brilliant minds have helped weave together these self-improvement shopping lists for civilization. It will take all our efforts to meet the formidable challenges they describe.

But what if the lists are missing a challenge? Indeed, what if the missing challenge is like the beef in beef stew—a defining ingredient?

Our civilization—all its comforts, benefits, and prosperity—is based on technology. But the record also shows a curious gap: We have not been very impressive in communicating the broad impact of the engineering profession to other disciplines—and to society as a whole. Therefore, we believe that the omitted grand challenge is one of the most important. We must have recognition of the importance of science and engineering to society as a whole.

In other words, it is incumbent upon us, as a technology-based civilization, to help train individuals who can serve as envoys, and apply, translate, and communicate science and engineering to a broader audience. Although ultimately we all need to be messengers of our profession, one crucial way to stimulate the creation of such ambassadors is to encourage the younger generation to use their training in science and engineering to move beyond the classical career mold, where scientists and engineers are in some sense sidetracked into civilization's supporting scientist and technologist roles. Instead, ambassadors of science and technology should use their unique background and expertise to move into the landscape of non-traditional careers. In that fashion, science and engineering can fuel other professions, and also allow more feedback and creativity to be brought back to the technological fold.

Taking non-traditional career pathways has many other benefits. The most notable among them is an opportunity to capitalize on newer resources and unforeseen prospects outside of science and engineering. The noted scientific ambassador, president emeritus of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and co-chair of the InterAcademy Council, Bruce Alberts, in his introduction to our recent book, Career Development in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, echoes our belief:

"…we must work on moving young people with scientific and technical expertise into a range of careers throughout general society. Scientific thinking provides clear benefits at all levels of society, and it promotes common understanding where other modes of communication might fail. Whether in Washington or Africa, it is not enough…to produce timely reports with sound recommendations-it is also crucial that there be people in the government, the media, and other positions in society with the scientific and technological background needed to interpret and adapt the advice for nation[s]. My conclusion: to effectively spread science and technology throughout our societies, we must also spread scientists and technologists. By this I mean that we will need to mount an intensive effort to make it possible for scientifically and technically trained people to move into a broad range of relevant professions, not only those that we normally define as 'science' or 'engineering.' "

He adds force to this message in his recent editorials for Science:

"Scientists [and engineers] in non-traditional careers are invaluable as two-way interpreters: people who can readily bring the benefits of scientific analysis to their institution or profession, as well as help traditional scientists better understand how their science might contribute in new ways. Even a single such individual can make a huge difference." (p. 289, April 18, 2008)

"[These people] will form the bridges needed for science to affect a wider society. We should therefore be generating new programs to support such career transitions, while cheering [those] who pursue them." (p. 155, April 11, 2008)

Coming up with solutions to the grand challenges is supremely difficult. But one, perhaps surprising way to approach the challenges is to use less obvious strategies to address them. And one of those less obvious strategies is to generate unforeseen collaborations by encouraging efforts and individuals in regard to career development beyond the usual paths in science and engineering.

Sometimes it can help to step back and see if the most important item has been included in a list. We believe that most important item is this: encourage scientists and engineers to explore hidden career territories, and thus help serve as ambassadors for civilization's future.

Authors

Guruprasad Madhavan is a Predoctoral Fellow in Biomedical Engineering at State University of New York, Binghamton, N.Y.; Barbara Oakley is an Associate Professor of Systems Engineering at Oakland University, Rochester, Mich., and Luis Kun is a Senior Research Professor of Homeland Security at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. The authors are co-editors of Career Development in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, Springer, 2008.

Editor's note: Improving the public perception of engineering and technology is a goal set by ASME's Global Summit on the Future of Mechanical Engineering, which met in Washinton, D.C., in April. Articles on the Global Summit appear in the May edition of ASME News and in the June issue of Mechanical Engineering magazine.

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