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Innovating WHY: Exploring the Grand Challenges

CES 2900 | Section 201 | Spring 2019 | 3 credits Tuesdays and Thursdays | 5:15 – 6:45 pm | Watt Family Innovation Center | Room 208

Have you thought about WHY you are pursuing your degree?

HOW will you make a difference?


Overview Engineering, computing, and earth science professionals have been and will continue to be the leaders responsible for shaping our society in the face of our greatest most complex challenges.

In 2008, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) developed a vision of what engineers should deliver to citizens of the world in this century: “Continuation of life on the planet, making our world more sustainable, secure, healthy, and joyful.” To realize this vision, the NAE published a list of 14 goals for engineering referred to as the Grand Challenges for Engineering. In a similar vein, the United Nations (UN) built upon the Millennium Development Goals and established a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. Both of these sets of goals are complex and exist on the global scale, which calls for a new generation of graduates to develop innovative solutions to achieve these goals.


This course will be largely discussion and project based enabling students to explore the grand challenges facing our society and how to leverage diverse skill sets and mindsets to develop innovative solutions to address these challenges. Student teams will use problem solving strategies to develop innovative solutions that create value. Each student will also develop a preliminary plan to acquire the competencies that will prepare them to continue to create value added solutions addressing society’s grand challenges in their career after graduation.


If you are ready to dig deep and explore WHY you want to be an engineer, computer scientist, or geologist and HOW you can make an IMPACT, then join us for this NEW course in the spring semester.

Course Objectives: 

  • Gain an understanding of the grand challenges facing our society and the role of engineering, computing, and earth science professionals in addressing these challenges.
  • Make connections to other disciplines and expertise on and off campus.
  • Use problem solving strategies to develop innovative solutions that create value.
  • Create a preliminary roadmap to acquire competencies that will help create impact after graduation.

If you are interested in enrolling in this course, please complete the application at https://goo.gl/forms/0G70upwAhh3SP6Oi1. This course is only open to students in the College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences and the target audience is 1st and 2nd year students, but more senior students will be considered as space permits. If you have any questions, please contact the instructor, Dr. Brad Putman (putman@clemson.edu).