LTU's Grand Challenge Scholars Program seeks solution-oriented students to work on inter-disciplinary, collaborative projects researching humanity's most urgent technological challenges.
Grand Challenge Scholars Program Application
The Grand Challenge Scholars Program is open to students in all undergraduate majors.
Please complete the Grand Challenge Scholars Application to be considered for admission.
Explore the Boundaries of Knowledge
GCSP students take common courses in Arts & Sciences and Engineering to develop collegial partnerships and foundational skills in these NAE-recognized compe tencies:
Talent Competency – mentored research/creative experience on a Grand Challenge-like topic.
Multidisciplinary Competency – understanding multidisciplinarity of engineering systems solutions developed through personal engagement.
Entrepreneurship Competency – understanding, preferably developed though experience, of the necessity of a viable business model for solution implementation.
Multicultural Competency – understanding different cultures, preferably through multicultural experiences, to ensure cultural acceptance of proposed engineering solutions.
Social Consciousness Competency – understanding that the engineering solutions should primarily serve people and society reflecting social consciousness.
These partnerships and skills culminate in an advanced research project focused upon a field recognized by the NAE as a Grand Challenge for humanity in the 21st Century.
Challenges
ADVANCE PERSONALIZED LEARNING
A growing appreciation of individual preferences and aptitudes has led toward more “personalized learning,” in which instruction is tailored to a student’s individual needs. Given the diversity of individual preferences, and the complexity of each human brain, developing teaching methods that optimize learning will require engineering solutions of the future.
MAKE SOLAR ENERGY ECONOMICAL
Currently, solar energy provides less than 1 percent of the world's total energy, but it has the potential to provide much, much more.
ENHANCE VIRTUAL REALITY
Within many specialized fields, from psychiatry to education, virtual reality is becoming a powerful new tool for training practitioners and treating patients, in addition to its growing use in various forms of entertainment.
REVERSE-ENGINEER THE BRAIN
A lot of research has been focused on creating thinking machines—computers capable of emulating human intelligence— however, reverse-engineering the brain could have multiple impacts that go far beyond artificial intelligence and will promise great advances in health care, manufacturing, and communication.
ENGINEER BETTER MEDICINES
Engineering can enable the development of new systems to use genetic information, sense small changes in the body, assess new drugs, and deliver vaccines to provide health care directly tailored to each person.
ADVANCE HEALTH INFORMATICS
As computers have become available for all aspects of human endeavors, there is now a consensus that a systematic approach to health informatics - the acquisition, management, and use of information in health - can greatly enhance the quality and efficiency of medical care and the response to widespread public health emergencies.
RESTORE AND IMPROVE URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
Infrastructure is the combination of fundamental systems that support a community, region, or country. Society faces the formidable challenge of modernizing the fundamental structures that will support our civilization in centuries ahead.
SECURE CYBERSPACE
Computer systems are involved in the management of almost all areas of our lives; from electronic communications, and data systems, to controlling traffic lights to routing airplanes. It is clear that engineering needs to develop innovations for addressing a long list of cybersecurity priorities.
PROVIDE ACCESS TO CLEAN WATER
The world's water supplies are facing new threats; affordable, advanced technologies could make a difference for millions of people around the world.
PROVIDE ENERGY FROM FUSION
A growing appreciation of individual preferences and aptitudes has led toward more “personalized learning,” in which instruction is tailored to a student’s individual needs. Given the diversity of individual preferences, and the complexity of each human brain, developing teaching methods that optimize learning will require engineering solutions of the future.
PREVENT NUCLEAR TERROR
The need for technologies to prevent and respond to a nuclear attack is growing
MANAGE THE NITROGEN CYCLE
Engineers can help restore balance to the nitrogen cycle with better fertilization technologies and by capturing and recycling waste.
DEVELOP CARBON SEQUESTRATION METHODS
Engineers are working on ways to capture and store excess carbon dioxide to prevent global warming.
ENGINEER THE TOOLS OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY
In the century ahead, engineers will continue to be partners with scientists in the great quest for understanding many unanswered questions of nature.
Find more information at NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering .
The GCSP sponsors a rich calendar of events throughout the year with a diverse group of partners, including
The MI DNR's Outdoor Adventure Center
TechTown Detroit Entrepreneurial Incubator
The Humanity + Technology Lecture Series
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Detroit Branch