Grand Challenges Scholars Program

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenges for Engineering program was created in 2008 as an aspirational vision of what engineering needs to deliver to all people on the planet in the 21st century.  With 14 goals in total - ranging from providing clean water and energy to reverse engineering the brain and providing energy from fusion - the NAE Grand Challenges Scholars Program focuses student research and professional development towards accomplishing this vision over the next century.

The Grand Challenges Scholars Program at GFU (GFU-GCSP) has a curricular and extracurricular structure comprising six complementary components (innovative research, interdisciplinarity, entrepreneurship, global focus, service learning, and faith integration).  A key feature of GFU-GCSP is an intentional deep-dive into the ethos for how and why engineers can and should have tremendous socio-economic and socio-technical impact in the communities they serve.  The honor of becoming a GFU-GCSP scholar signifies a student has spent significant time and effort engaging in impactful research, coupled with deep reflection on the responsibility and implication of being an engineer and global citizen.  To this end, GFU-GCSP desires to foster empathetic and globally-minded engineers - a powerful transformation that is sure to be worth the effort.

Students interested in becoming part of GFU-GCSP should contact the program director, Jeffrey Walters, for information on how to apply.

For more information on GFU-GCSP, please visit the official program website.