April 15, 2010
Engineering Summit to address challenges in aerospace, computing, biotech
The National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges Summit in Seattle will take place May 2 and 3. The one-time event is a forum for students and engineers from academia and industry to discuss problems they will try to solve in the coming decades.
“This is a unique event to talk about what it really means to be an engineer in the 21st century, and how engineering and related disciplines are going to affect life in the coming years,” said Matt O’Donnell, the University of Washington’s dean of engineering. “For students, it’s a chance to discuss the issues that will define their careers. For others, it’s an opportunity to learn about fundamental issues for our society in the 21st century.”
The National Academy of Engineering in 2008 established 14 Grand Challenges for engineers. Choices include making computers secure, developing cheap solar power and providing access to clean water.
Seattle is one of six cities across the country that will host a summit this year to discuss the NAE Grand Challenges.
Of the 14 national challenges, the Seattle summit will focus on two that relate to the region’s strengths in aerospace, computing and biotech. The Seattle Summit will address the challenge to “Engineer better medicines” and “Engineer the tools of scientific discovery,” which covers both computing tools for data-intensive science and technology for space exploration.
Summit speakers will address questions such as:
- How will emerging medical technologies, which span both a device and a drug, be regulated?
- How can genetic therapies become a reality?
- Is the future of aerospace innovation in the public or private sector?
- Can we continue to send humans into space, or should we send only robots?
- How will we store and make sense of the flood of data generated by modern science?
The first day of the conference, Sunday, will take place on the UW campus. Hugh Chang, of global-health nonprofit PATH, will give the opening address, followed by a Grand Challenges overview and question-and-answer period with O’Donnell. Students will then present posters that describe their ideas for solving one of the national Grand Challenge topics in a developing world setting with limited resources. The student with the best poster will win $500 and a stipend to attend the national Grand Challenge Summit this fall in Los Angeles.
The second day will take place at the Washington State Convention Center. The daylong program will be moderated by John Markoff, science and technology correspondent for The New York Times, and will include presentations and panel discussions on each topic.
Speakers for “Engineer better medicines” are Nicholas Peppas of the University of Texas at Austin, Bruce Montgomery of Gilead Sciences Inc., Lonnie Edelheit of General Electric Co., Suzie Pun of UW bioengineering and O’Donnell of the UW College of Engineering.
Speakers for “Engineering the tools for scientific discovery: Aerospace” are Ed Crawley of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, former NASA administrator Michael Griffin and former NASA astronaut Bonnie Dunbar, president and CEO of the Museum of Flight.
Speakers for “Engineering the tools for scientific discovery: Computing” are Larry Smarr of the University of California at San Diego, Catharine van Ingen of Microsoft Research, Alon Halevy of Google, Jonathan Chang of Facebook and Ed Lazowska of UW computer science and engineering.
Conference registration is $100, $75 for those employed by educational institutions and $20 for students. Registration includes attendance both days, refreshments and lunch on Monday. Prices increase April 19 to $175, $125 for educational staff. Student registration remains $20.
The Seattle Summit is sponsored by Amgen, Facebook Inc., Ford Motor Co., Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Oregon State University’s College of Engineering, the UW’s College of Engineering, Washington Research Foundation, Boeing Co., Gilead Sciences Inc., Microsoft Corp., IBM and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Puget Sound chapter.
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Members of the media should contact Hannah Hickey, 206-543-2580, hickeyh@uw.edu. Registration is free for the media, and a press room will be available for conducting interviews.
More conference information and registration is at http://www.engr.washington.edu/news/nae10/index.html
