And the 14 Grand Engineering Challenges of the 21st Century Are..

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By Chuck Squatriglia February 15, 2008
Before you can save the world, you'd better write a to-do list so nothing gets overlooked. Some of the world's brightest minds have done just that by laying out this century's greatest engineering challenges.
The panel of 18 engineers, technologists and futurists included Google co-founder Larry Page and genomics pioneer J. Craig Venter. They spent more than a year pondering how best to improve life on Earth and came up with 14 Grand Engineering Challenges, a list the National Academy of Engineering deemed so momentous it should be capitalized.
The list, announced this afternoon, addresses four themes the committee considered "essential for humanity to flourish" - environmental sustainability, health, reducing our vulnerability and adding to the joy of living.
"We chose engineering challenges that we feel can, through creativity and committment, be realistically met, most of them early in this century," said committee chair William J. Perry, the former Secretary of Defense who teaches engineering at Stanford University. "Some can be, and should be, achieved as soon as possible."
What are they?
Make solar energy affordable.
Provide energy from fusion.
Develop carbon sequestration methods.
Manage the nitrogen cycle.
Provide access to clean water.
Restore and improve urban infrastructure.
Advance health informatics.
Engineer better medicines.
Reverse-engineer the brain.
Prevent nuclear terror.
Secure cyberspace.
Enhance virtual reality.
Advance personalized learning.
Engineer the tools for scientific discovery.
The committee, which also included such luminaries as futurist Ray Kurzweil and robotics guru Dean Kamen, decided not to make any predictions or focus on gee-whiz gadgets. They felt it more important to outline broad objectives that might influence research funding and governmental policy.
The 14 challenges they laid out were culled from hundreds of suggestions from engineers, scientists, policymakers and ordinary people around the world.
"Meeting these challenges would be game changing," said Charles M. Vest, president of the NAE. "Success with any of them could dramatically improve life for everyone."
So... what should we check off first?

Ecotopias Aren't Just for Hippies Anymore — and They're Sprouting Up Worldwide

By Frank Bures 01.18.08 | 6:00 PM

In the 1970s, environmental idealists had a vision of Ecotopia: Everyone recycled, there was no pollution, and we all worshipped trees and co-ops. Today's eco-communities are less crunchy and a lot more high tech. In addition to using renewable energy sources, these projects aim to limit their impact on surrounding ecosystems by building with green materials, promoting earth-friendly transportation, and recycling water and waste. The race for the first carbon-neutral, zero-emissions community is on.

Costa Rica Costa Rica
Dockside Green Victoria, British Columbia
Dongtan Chongming Island, China
Green Mountain Libya
Guangtang Chuangye Park Liuzhou, China
Masdar Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Northstowe Cambridge, England
Norway Norway
Treasure Island San Francisco
Vauban Freiburg, Germany
Växjö Växjö, Sweden

The Cardboard House

The Cardboard House represents the reduction of technology and the simplification of needs. By demonstrating that we are able to recycle 100% of the building components at extremely low cost, the Cardboard House is a direct challenge to the housing industry to reduce housing and environmental costs.
Stutchbury and Pape, working in association with the Ian Buchan Fell Housing Research Unit at University of Sydney, see this project as a genuine temporary housing option.
A cardboard house places the least demand on resources and encourages people to shift their preconceptions about the “typical Australian house”. Many Australians enjoy camping on their holidays, easily shifting their lifestyle from the rigidity of the urban home to the freedom of the campsite.
Being extremely low cost and transportable, the Cardboard House could be used in a wide variety of applications. You could live in one while your permanent house is being built or renovated, for emergency housing, or for short-term accommodation.

Why choose cardboard?

Cardboard is not a traditional building material, however the introduction of innovative bonding, cutting and structural techniques has provided the opportunity to consider this lightweight and recyclable material in a more creative fashion.
All the material in the house is recycled, and recyclable, making it an excellent environmentally sustainable option for housing. The Carboard House is made of recycled carboard supplied by Visy Industries. This is completed with a waterproof roof made from HDPE plastic, which also forms the material of the flexible under-floor water tanks and the novel kitchen and bathroom 'pods'.

How it all goes together

The Cardboard House is conceived as a kit of parts comprising a flat pack of frames, and infill floor and wall panels. It uses minimal fixings: nylon wing nuts, hand-tightened polyster tape stays and Velcro fastenings are used to assemble the frames and protective skin system.
The building can be assembled by two people over a six-hour period using appropriate scaffolding, and is transportable in a light commercial vehicle.
A series of repetitive portal frames are both spaced and stabilised by a standardised secondary structure, similar to the interlocking spacer sheets found in wine boxes. Once assembled, the structure provides a creative architectural frame from which the house derives its aesthetic.
Fixed and moveable furnishings, floor systems, door and opening frames, lighting and other services all relate to the structure and layout.
The roof covering is a lightweight material that is as transportable as the structure. Similar to a tent fly, the roof fabric assists in holding down the building, providing a diffuse light in the day and a glowing box at night.
Water is collected in bladders underneath the floor which double as ballast to hold down the lightweight building.
A composting toilet system produces nutrient-rich water for gardening.
Low-voltage lighting can be powered using a 12-volt car battery or small photovoltaic cells mounted on the roof framing.

What are the implications for the future of housing?

The Architects see this project as a genuine housing option. Extremely low cost, transportable, lightweight and flexible, this building could be used in a variety of widespread applications. The Cardboard House is seen as a prototype that may serve to meet future housing in a way that is responsible and beautiful.

Historical or theoretical precedents

Paper and cardboard have been used to construct domestic housing in Japan for many centuries, where rice paper (shoji) was both cheap and safe in earthquake prone regions. Folded cardboard (origami) was also used for lightweight enclosures, simulating paper sculpture.
Contemporary Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has used tubular and flat cardboard to great effect for housing, civic buildings, large exhibition pavilions and emergency shelters.
In Australia, pioneering work was carried out at the University of New South Wales by Vincent Sedlack, and just last year Adriano Pupilli, an honours student at the University of Sydney, designed and built a full-size bay of a 5-bedroom house with Col James. This attracted local attention and directly led to the invitation to showcase cardboard as a potential building material in the future.

Solar shingles could be your home’s power source of the future

New advances on the production of photovoltaic solar panels allow for them to be made in the style of roofing shingles. Instead of just a big clunky block of solar capturing, the solar cells can be integrated to look like normal roof tiles, making your choice of power not only inconspicuous, but more pleasing to the eye.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has been testing new photovoltaic panels in Maryland, calibrating their output and performance for widespread use in the future. All of the test models have areas in the roof where homeowners can nail or mount something without the circuitry being destroyed. The test results will be more of a technological study than a buyers guide, yet will surely influence what we see in the future as effective solar energy consumption. — Andrew Dobrow