A 21st Century Renaissance Technology, humanism, and cross-disciplinary cooperation can combine to take us farther than we dreamed we could go. Good afternoon, and congratulations to our new members. I know you will find your experience with the NAE rewarding. Few organizations have so great an effect on the ... AuthorGeorge M. C. Fisher Release dateFall 2000 Volume30 Number3/4 Read More
A 911 Call to the Engineering Profession The events of September 11 challenged the future of our heavily engineered environment and the future of the engineering profession. An attack on our nation . . . thousands dead . . . 20 percent of downtown office space in Manhattan damaged or destroyed . . . more than 40 percent of the ... AuthorRobert Prieto Release dateSpring 2002 Volume32 Number1 Read More
A Call for K–16 Engineering Education Engineers are packaged as problem solvers rather than creators and innovators addressing grand challenges. The best-intentioned diversity-recruitment initiatives by engineering colleges nationwide have had little success in increasing access to the richly textured future afforded by careers ... AuthorJacquelyn F. Sullivan Release dateSummer 2006 Volume36 Number2 Read More
A Disturbing Mosaic The United States is trading the long-term health of U.S. research and education for the appearance of short-term security. William Wulf I assume that all of you have read or heard a discussion of Tom Friedman’s book (2005), The World Is Flat. But just in case, I’ll ... AuthorWm. A. Wulf Release dateFall 2005 Volume35 Number3 Read More
A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Looking Toward the Future of Science Education It is an exciting time for K–12 science and engineering education in the United States; a new vision for teaching science and engineering promises to transform the experiences of students in all grades across the country. This vision, articulated in a new report from the National Research ... AuthorHeidi A. Schweingruber, Helen Quinn, Thomas E. Keller, and Greg Pearson Release dateSpring 2013 Volume43 Number1 Read More
A Glimpse into the DOD S&T Program Leveraging advances in commercial technologies and maintaining a well-balanced, adequately funded S&T program will be necessary to retaining our technological edge. As the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) moves into the twenty-first century, its science and technology (S&T) program ... AuthorDelores M. Etter Release dateSummer 2001 Volume31 Number2 Read More
A Life In Education An engineer's personal experiences form the basis for an innovative educational program that uses concrete, visual problems to teach abstract math concepts to students in inner-city public schools. Many are the paths to a successful educational career, and they vary from country to ... AuthorMario Salvadori Release dateSummer 1997 Volume27 Number2 Read More
A Multidisciplinary Approach to Concussion Management A significant challenge in the diagnosis and management of athletes and military personnel with concussion is the diverse background, training, clinical management approach and outcomes used by the multidisciplinary team of clinicians involved. Further challenging the continuity of care ... AuthorJay L. Alberts Release dateSpring 2016 Volume46 Number1 Read More
A Nuclear Explosion in a City or an Attack on a Nuclear Reactor A surface detonation of a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb would be far more deadly than either of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In this article, I discuss two types of nuclear terrorism: (1) the detonation of a nuclear weapon or improvised nuclear device (IND, also called ... AuthorRichard L. Garwin Release dateSummer 2010 Volume40 Number2 Read More
A Panoply of Perspectives This issue of The Bridge is a composite, with articles on a broad spectrum of issues that I expect readers will find of interest. Marie Thursby writes on the importance of engineering education in terms of industrial innovation and describes some subtleties in the supply and ... AuthorRonald M. Latanision Release dateFall 2014 Volume44 Number3 Read More
A Perspective on the Social Amplifications of Risk Risk perception and communication are important factors in decisions about managing risk events and their impacts. One of the most perplexing problems in risk analysis is why some relatively minor risks or risk events (as assessed by technical experts) elicit strong public concerns and result ... AuthorRoger E. Kasperson Release dateFall 2012 Volume42 Number3 Read More
A Plea for a Coordinated National Water Policy The United States has no national policies or institutions in place to deal with the major water challenges that lie ahead. U.S. scientists chartered by Congress through the National Academies have affirmed that climate change is occurring, identified its potential impacts, and concluded that ... AuthorGerald E. Galloway Jr. Release dateWinter 2011 Volume41 Number4 Read More
A White Paper on the Defense Against Ballistic Missiles The United States needs a strong, effective missile defense system to meet the threats and uncertainties that lie ahead. Introduction In the past three years, very significant progress has been made on the development of defenses against ballistic missiles. A number of systems have been ... AuthorHans Mark Release dateSummer 2001 Volume31 Number2 Read More
Adaptation to the Impacts of Climate Change on Transportation Nowhere will the impacts of climate change and the need for adaptive responses be more apparent than in our vast, complex transportation system. Henry G. Schwartz Jr. AuthorHenry G. Schwartz Jr. Release dateFall 2010 Volume40 Number3 Read More
Adapting Industry Practices for the Rapid, Large-Scale Manufacture of Pharmaceutical Proteins The tools and methods of industrial biotechnology could be adapted to produce pharmaceutical proteins for a pandemic influenza vaccine. At Genencor, an industrial biotechnology company, full-scale industrial manufacturing of proteins at volumes of 30,000,000 gram-active proteins per month is ... AuthorDavid Estell Release dateFall 2006 Volume36 Number3 Read More
Adapting Process-Improvement Techniques in an Academic Medical Center Systemic changes require cooperation between those who deliver care and administrators committed to the public disclosure of outcomes. Academic medical centers, the crown jewels of the medical system, have a tripartite mission. First, of course, as hospitals, they are intimately involved in ... AuthorPaul F. Levy Release dateSpring 2008 Volume38 Number1 Read More
Additive Manufacturing in Aerospace: Examples and Research Outlook Additive manufacturing has the potential to revolutionize the production of aerospace and defense components. The advantages of additive manufacturing are now widely recognized, even in the general media, and are predicted to revolutionize manufacturing processes for many industries ... AuthorBrett Lyons Release dateSpring 2012 Volume42 Number1 Read More
Addressing Corruption in the Global Engineering/Construction Industry Estimates indicate that more than $500 billion is lost to corruption each year in the global engineering/construction (E/C) industry. While this economic loss is staggering, it pales in comparison to the losses suffered by people in need of water and wastewater projects, roads, schools, hospitals, ... AuthorWilliam P. Henry Release dateSpring 2017 Volume47 Number1 Read More
Advancing Sustainable Manufacturing with the Use of Cognitive Agents The emerging field of “cognitive” manufacturing is characterized by capabilities and visions for moving beyond “smart” manufacturing toward systems that have the capacity to monitor and evaluate manufacturing performance and then propose process and operations improvements ... AuthorSteven J. Skerlos Release dateWinter 2013 Volume43 Number4 Read More
Agent-Based Modeling as a Decision-Making Tool Control over agent-based systems can be achieved via modeling tools. Researchers have made considerable advances in the quantitative characterization, understanding, and control of nonliving systems. We are rather familiar with physical and chemical systems, ranging from elementary ... AuthorZoltán Toroczkai and Stephen Eubank Release dateWinter 2005 Volume35 Number4 Read More