"From urban centers to remote corners of Earth, the depths of the oceans to space, humanity has always sought to transcend barriers, overcome challenges, and create opportunities that improve life in our part of the universe. In the last century alone, many GREAT ENGINEERING ACHIEVEMENTS became so commonplace that we now take them mostly for granted. Technology allows an abundant supply of food and safe drinking water for much of the world. We rely on electricity for many of our daily activities. We can travel the globe with relative ease, and bring goods and services wherever they are needed. Growing computer and communications technologies are opening up vast stores of knowledge and entertainment. As remarkable as these engineering achievements are, certainly just as many more great challenges and opportunities remain to be realized. While some seem clear, many others are indistinct and many more surely lie beyond most of our imaginations.
With input from people around the world, an international group of leading technological thinkers were asked to identify the Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st century. Their 14 game-changing goals for improving life on the planet, announced in 2008, are outlined here. The committee suggested these Grand Challenges fall into four cross-cutting themes: SUSTAINABILITY, HEALTH, SECURITY, and JOY OF LIVING.
For the report’s full Introduction CLICK HERE."
Victoria Nneji, a colleague of mine, mentioned to me the Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st century, and which I found very interesting. These challenges are not only talking about what changes we can make, but also about what need to be changed. I like the challenge of JOY OF LIVING and propose to scale up customization using Human Factors methods. I study what factors influence people's intrinsic motivation in interacting with robots, their emotional attachment to the robots, and how we can design the robots accordingly. The findings will generalize to different entities in people's ordinary life.
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I received a greeting card from FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and I liked it a lot. Wish you the same! |
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