George Mason University's Volgenau School of Engineering is one of more than 120 U.S. engineering schools that has committed to establishing special educational programs as part of a White House initiative announced this week.
The programs are designed to prepare undergraduates to solve "Grand Challenges"—complex yet achievable goals to improve national and international health, security, sustainability and quality of life in the 21st century.
Together, the schools plan to graduate more than 20,000 formally recognized "Grand Challenge Engineers" over the next decade.
The Volgenau School of Engineering plans to pilot the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenge Scholars Program (GCSP) through its newly established BS in Mechanical Engineering Program.
Once the program is fully implemented in the Mechanical Engineering program—expected in fall 2015—other existing engineering programs will be invited to join the community until all programs in the engineering school establish a network and a community of scholars in each department. The Grand Challenge program could be fully integrated at the Volgenau School as early as 2020, administrators said.
For details about the initiative please see the news release from the National Academy of Engineering.