Microscopic systems with complex functionalities have been the inspiration for the emerging field of synthetic biology.

Autonomous systems have helped solve a variety of engineering challenges, from drastic changes in manufacturing processes since the 1950s to the exploration of space and ...

 Genome sequencing will soon become a standard part of medical care, agricultural practices, drug discovery and approval, and a myriad of other applications

Genomics emerged as a scientific field after the invention of the original DNA sequencing technique by Fredrick Sanger (Sanger et al., ...

In the near future, fully autonomous unmanned aircraft systems will be both technologically feasible and safe.

The next-generation air transportation system (NextGen) will achieve unprecedented levels of throughput¹ and safety by judiciously integrating human supervisors with automation ...

Aerospace scientists tend not to trust autonomous software for projects on which many years and large sums of money have been spent.

Automation is now apparent in many aspects of our lives, from aerospace systems (e.g., autopilots) to manufacturing processes (e.g., assembly lines) to robotic ...

 Research at the intersection of engineering and musical performance includes music cognition, expression synthesis, ensemble coordination, and improvisation.

The mathematical nature of music and its imminently quantifiable attributes make it an ideal medium for studying human creativity and ...

New thinking about computer systems is focused on holistic designs that cross traditional boundaries.

We are entering an exciting era for computer-systems design. In addition to continued advances in performance, next-generation designs are also addressing important challenges related to ...

The essence of cloud computing is to make datacenter hardware and software available to the general public on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Computer science is moving forward so quickly and is so focused on its recent history that we are often surprised to learn that visionary ideas were articulated ...

Editor's Note

Every year the NAE U.S. Frontiers of Engineering (FOE) Symposium brings together approximately 100 outstanding engineers, ages 30 to 45, to share ideas and learn about cutting-edge engineering research. A unique feature of FOE symposia is that participants are competitively ...