Energizing Automation with the Grand Engineering Challenges

Summary

By Bill Lydon, Editor

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) put forth “The Grand Challenges for Engineering” in 2008 to stimulate interest in technology and innovation. The last “big idea” used to stimulate technology and engineering was President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 goal to send an American safely to the Moon before the end of the decade. The NAE believes technology achievement is a holistic endeavor rather than silos of science and technology operating independently.

The National Academy of Engineering is a government-created, non-profit institution in the United States that was founded in 1964 under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences. As a National Academy, it consists of members who are elected by current members, based on their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. The election process for new members is conducted annually. The NAE is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the rest of the National Academies the role of advising the federal government. The NAE operates engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers.

The National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges:

• Make solar energy economical
• Provide energy from fusion
• Develop carbon sequestration methods
• Manage the nitrogen cycle
• Provide access to clean water
• Restore and improve urban infrastructure
• Advance health informatics
• Engineer better medicines
• Reverse-engineer the brain (Artificial Intelligence)
• Prevent nuclear terror
• Secure cyberspace
• Enhance virtual reality
• Advance personalized learning
• Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

Elevating the importance of technology and focusing on worthy big goals can be used to focus companies and engage the imagination young people, attracting them to professions like science, engineering, and automation. The automation engineering role is the application of science and technology to achieve tangible outcomes. I believe the automation engineering profession can contribute to these Grand Challenges in the near term as noted below:

• Make solar energy economical – Drive costs down with production automation.
• Provide access to clean water – Water, waste water process and automation systems.
• Restore and improve urban infrastructure – Metro cities automation.
• Reverse-engineer the brain (Artificial Intelligence) – Automation system capturing and systemizing experienced operator knowledge.
• Enhance virtual reality – Harnessing virtual reality technology for advanced training systems.
• Advance personalized learning – Systemizing automation knowledge and incorporating it into personal learning tools.
• Engineer the tools of scientific discovery – Advancing analysis hardware, software, and sensors.

National Instruments has a commitment to the Grand Challenges, which is natural based on Dr. James Truchard’s (President, CEO and Co-Founder) commitment to technology and engineering. Dr. Truchard has been a member of the National Academy of Engineering since 2007. His philosophy is to attract good engineers. It helps to look at society’s greatest challenges and then call on your engineers to be part of a mission to solve them. At the company’s annual conference, engineers present innovations that relate to the Grand Challenges.

Attracting Talent

There is a lot of discussion about the skills crisis with retiring people and lack of new people coming into the industry. Attracting talent to the engineering and industrial automation fields will require engaging the imagination of young people. The idea of solving the Grand Challenges may be one way to attract the next generation of engineers. What are your ideas relative to the Grand Challenges?

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