WASHINGTON – The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) congratulates 14 students for graduating as NAE Grand Challenges Scholars in 2011. The students will receive diplomas this month from Duke University, Louisiana Tech University, and Olin College of Engineering. There are currently 41 Grand Challenges Scholars programs either operating or in development in the United States.
The Grand Challenges Scholars program stemmed from the NAE’s 14 Grand Challenges for Engineering. It is a combined curricular and extra-curricular program designed to prepare students to work on problems whose solutions could dramatically improve quality of life around the world. In 2009, leaders from Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, and the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering proposed this new education model. The program employs a number of components, including: research experience, an interdisciplinary curriculum (referred to as Engineering +), entrepreneurship, a global dimension, and service learning.
The 2011 NAE Grand Challenges Scholars are as follows:
Duke University: Anna Brown, Jared Dunnmon, Ben Gagne, Francesco LaRocca, Trisha Lowe, Niru Maheswaranathan, Lyndsey Morgan, Eng Seng Ng, and Eric Thorne
Louisiana Tech: Stephanie Parker and Louis Reis
Olin College: Marco Morales, Andy Pethan, and Christina Powell
The National Academy of Engineering is an independent, nonprofit institution. Its members consist of the nation’s premier engineers, who are elected by their peers for seminal contributions to engineering. The academy provides leadership and guidance to government on the application of engineering resources to social, economic, and security problems. Established in 1964, NAE operates under the congressional charter granted to the National Academy of Sciences in 1863.
