The National Academies
09/24/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 09/24/2024 08:21
‘The Hallmark of Engineering Is Creativity’
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'The Hallmark of Engineering Is Creativity'
Feature Story| September 24, 2024By Sara Frueh
On Sept. 29-30, the National Academy of Engineering will hold its annual meeting and also celebrate its 60th anniversary. In advance of the meeting, we asked NAE President John Anderson for his thoughts on that milestone, future challenges where engineers can provide solutions, and the theme of this year's meeting - how to strengthen supply chains.
NAE is celebrating its 60th anniversary. When you think about NAE's contributions to the nation, and to the engineering profession, over the past 60 years, what stands out to you? Where has there been the most impact?
Anderson: I think NAE's most important contribution is a heightened awareness of the positive impact engineering and engineers have had on society. We have emphasized the great and good things accomplished by engineers and the positive impacts innovation has made to create a better world.
For example, programs like our NAE awards for extraordinary engineering achievements showcase the "human element" driving engineering. We've also published books like Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century, which show the "wow" factor of engineering and how it has improved our daily lives.
But the awards are especially noteworthy because promoting the individuals who create those achievements drives future engineers to ask, "What if I … ." The hallmark of engineering is creativity - producing things and systems we didn't know we needed but now could not live without, and it takes people to make that happen.
Related to that, another important contribution is NAE's collaboration with organizations and universities to attract, prepare, and strengthen the engineering workforce of tomorrow. This effort is very broad in scope - it touches on everything from diversity, equity, and inclusion for both students and practicing professionals, to modernizing engineering education in a way that prepares engineering graduates for their first day on the job and their 20th year, to promoting collaboration and building networks of engineering leaders.
When you think about the next 60 years - what are the biggest challenges and problems where engineering can make a contribution to the nation and the world?
Anderson: With the rapid changes taking place in the world today, it is difficult to see 10 years in advance, let alone 60.
Climate change and its impacts are clearly the grand challenge for engineering and all fields. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions will involve engineering, the physical and life sciences, and the social sciences. The climate will keep changing for several decades, and adaptation will be very important.
Because of human mobility and travel, pandemics will continually pose challenges. The new vaccines created through science and medicine will have to be scaled up quickly by engineers. Humans have been fighting viral diseases throughout history and will continue to do so - but given our greater mobility now, engineered protection through diagnostics, equipment, and vaccines will be essential for the health of society.
Engineers will also continue to contribute to improvements in the quality of life by producing new devices for communications and security, personal health monitoring, and medical care.
What are some of the big challenges the engineering profession will need to navigate in the decades ahead? (e.g., technological challenges, human resource challenges, ethical challenges)
Anderson: One challenge is balancing public good versus the potential unintended, negative consequences of new technology. A good example is artificial intelligence. Advances in AI must take this balance into account. The fear of change or misuse of a new technology shouldn't stifle its advancement; instead, engineering should partner with the social sciences to develop guidelines when introducing new technologies.
Another major challenge is the ability to recruit - and retain - a diverse U.S. student population into engineering majors. According to NSF's National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, as of 2020, women earned approximately a quarter of engineering degrees at the bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree levels. Black students earned only about 5% of engineering degrees at the bachelor's level, and American Indian or Alaska Native students earned only 0.3% of engineering degrees at the bachelor's level. If we want engineering to reflect today's diverse population, we need to meet students where they are and bring them into engineering fields.
Along those lines, I think engineering education will need to make a major shift so that the curriculum is a balance of courses in the sciences, engineering, and general education including the humanities and social sciences. Doing so will foster engineers who are equipped to be critical thinkers, efficient team members, decisive problem solvers, and strong communicators - as well as self-aware individuals who can discover, understand, and evaluate society's values and the impacts change may have.
This year's NAE annual meeting is focused on building the resilience of supply chains. I think for many people in the U.S., supply chains were mostly invisible until the pandemic, when things like hand sanitizer and toilet paper and N95 masks were suddenly hard to get. What did the pandemic reveal about vulnerabilities in our supply chain?
Anderson: There are quick fixes to shortages of commodities, like toilet paper. The challenge is guaranteeing a robust supply chain to produce technically complicated products such as pharmaceuticals and electronic devices.
For example, drugs are complex molecules that are built from small molecules called "precursors." These raw materials come from all over the world and are often produced by countries outside the U.S. Natural disasters and geopolitics can interrupt the shipment of precursors to manufacturing sites. So, the U.S., like other countries, must consider producing as many precursor molecules as economically feasible.
A major supply chain problem looming in the future is the availability of critical elements that are needed to manufacture batteries and electronic components. The CHIPS legislation reinforces the importance of controlling manufacturing processes, including a secure supply of critical materials. For example, the U.S. will need to increase its mining operations in order to ensure that adequate supplies of the critical elements are produced in the U.S. (See the summer 2024 issue of The Bridge.)
How do you think engineers can help address these vulnerabilities and problems?
Anderson: A characteristic of engineering practice is an appreciation of systems and the interactions among their components. A fix on one element of a system could lead to a vulnerability in another element. Engineers recognize the importance of understanding how a particular component fits in and interacts with all the elements.
Engineers need to remind the public of system vulnerabilities in areas such as energy supply and infrastructure. For example, the production of electric vehicles requires a robust national infrastructure.
Engineering education should probably put more emphasis on systems thinking in the curriculum.
What's your favorite thing about being an engineer?
Anderson: The euphoria of creativity when pursuing a new idea using scientific and social knowledge, and developing that idea into something useful.
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