On April 21 to 22, engineering, government, non-profit and business leaders from across the United States and abroad, as well as local high school and college students, will convene at Chicago’s Fairmont Hotel as the Illinois Institute of Technology and Chicago Council on Science and Technology present the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenges for the 21st Century: Chicago Summit 2010. The Chicago Summit is designed to stimulate the engineering, science and policy advances needed to address four key “grand challenges” facing the United States: clean water; carbon, energy and climate; urban sustainability; and global health.
Among the many notables to attend the summit will be U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, assistant to the president for science and technology, Dr. John P. Holdren, and the Haitian Ministry of Health’s Marie Denise Milord.
In 2000, NAE released the results of a survey identifying the 20 most important engineering achievements of the 20th century. The list included the electrification of homes and businesses, clean water, refrigeration and air conditioning, as well as advances in communications, electronics, materials, medicine and transportation that have changed the way we live. Looking forward, NAE recently commissioned a committee of engineers, scientists and futurists to solicit ideas related to the “grand challenges” facing the global society in the 21st century. The Chicago Summit is one of five NAE Grand Challenge summits taking place across the country this spring to explore the 14 grand challenges identified.
“The NAE Grand Challenges are a grouping of critical problems that must be addressed and solved in order to maintain our national security, quality of life and sustainable future,” said John L. Anderson, president, Illinois Institute of Technology. “This Midwest Summit aims to bring together some of the country’s best minds to begin to work toward solutions.”
The NAE Grand Challenges for the 21st Century: Chicago Summit 2010 is hosted by the Illinois Institute of Technology and Chicago Council on Science and Technology in partnership with Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Chicago Summit is presented by Exelon and A. Finkl & Sons Co.
Source: Illinois Institute of Technology
