Engineering challenges for the 21st century

The Grand Challenges for Engineering was determined by a committee of the National Academy of Engineering. From an In Depth article in The Melbourne Age on Feb 24th 2008:

The panel consisted of 18 leading scientists, including geneticist Craig Venter and Google co-founder Larry Page, and was chaired by former US secretary of defence William Perry.
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The list below was presented to the annual conference of the world's largest scientific organisation (and publisher of the journal Science), the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in Boston last week.
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Sydney-based futurist Mark Pesce believes there are some usual suspects in the list. "It's a good list. It's funny; when I saw the fusion one I laughed. I was born in 1962 and people were saying then that fusion was 20 to 50 years away. I'm 45 now and they're still saying it's 20 to 50 years away."
But he says there are some puzzling inclusions. "Nuclear tension and safety in cyberspace are absolutely sociological problems and they don't easily admit to any engineering solution."

What do you think?

• Make solar energy economical
  Solar energy provides less than 1% of the world's total energy, but it has the potential to provide much, much more.
  
  
• Provide energy from fusion
  Human-engineered fusion has been demonstrated on a small scale. The challenge is to scale up the process to commercial proportions, in an efficient, economical, and environmentally benign way.
  
  
• Develop carbon sequestration methods
  Engineers are working on ways to capture and store excess carbon dioxide to prevent global warming.
  
  
• Manage the nitrogen cycle
  Engineers can help restore balance to the nitrogen cycle with better fertilization technologies and by capturing and recycling waste.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Restore and improve urban infrastructure
  Good design and advanced materials can improve transportation and energy, water, and waste systems, and also create more sustainable urban environments.
  
  
• Advance health informatics
  Stronger health information systems not only improve everyday medical visits, but they are essential to counter pandemics and biological or chemical attacks.
  
  
• Engineer better medicines
  Engineers are developing new systems to use genetic information, sense small changes in the body, assess new drugs, and deliver vaccines.
  
  
• Reverse-engineer the brain
  The intersection of engineering and neuroscience promises great advances in health care, manufacturing, and communication.
  
  
• Prevent nuclear terror
  The need for technologies to prevent and respond to a nuclear attack is growing.
  
  
• Secure cyberspace
  It's more than preventing identity theft. Critical systems in banking, national security, and physical infrastructure may be at risk.
  
  
• Enhance virtual reality
  True virtual reality creates the illusion of actually being in a difference space. It can be used for training, treatment, and communication.
  
  
• Advance personalized learning
  Instruction can be individualized based on learning styles, speeds, and interests to make learning more reliable.
  
  
• 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.