With this issue of the Bridge, the NAE will be in the midst of a leadership transition as Dan Mote succeeds Chuck Vest as president. I have had the opportunity to work a bit with Dan in the context of an Association of American Universities (AAU) initiative on precollege education that I chaired on ...

The societal challenges of the 21st century are profound and wide-ranging. Basic needs such as energy, food and water, housing, mobility, and health will become even more acute as the world population exceeds 9 billion. The demands for sustainable development will require redefined and innovative ...

On January 30, 2013, PBS’s NewsHour devoted a segment to American schools that have introduced real-world applications to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education while at the same time promoting students’ ability to “get the concepts” over the ...

Two decades ago I witnessed a dramatic event unfold in engineering education. Believing that “real impact in engineering education will be made only by looking at the curriculum as a whole” (authors’ italics, not mine), an engineering department at a major research university ...

Engineering is an integral part of daily life and can provide a strong foundation for almost any career path. Teaching about the wondrously engineered world and drawing on everyday existence for teaching examples can make learning fun and relevant. Yet engineering faces a number of challenges, many ...

Industry and society depend on engineers for the design and production of goods that meet customer needs and are safe, reliable, efficient, and competitive in the global market. Given the dynamics of the global economy and changing US age demographics (specifically, in this context, the large ...

It is an exciting time to be an engineer. In recent decades, the engineering workforce has helped the United States make substantial advances in communications, health, defense, infrastructure, and manufacturing (Blue et al. 2005), and the time between the emergence of new technologies and their ...

The clamor surrounding the high cost, limited access, static nature, and often low quality of the world’s education systems is reaching a crescendo. Many observers claim a serious threat to the future of youth, the training of workforces worldwide, and even the democratic process. In ...

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts enjoys a citizenry highly educated in the sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as well as thriving high-tech and life sciences industries. Yet there is a shortage of workers appropriately trained and educated for what are often referred to as ...

In 2007 the National Academy of Engineering, with support from the National Science Foundation, convened a panel of leading thinkers from academia, policy, and business with the charge of identifying a small number of grand challenges for engineering in the 21st century. Their extraordinary list of ...