{"id":1353,"date":"2013-03-25T10:05:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T10:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/msr_er\/2013\/03\/25\/confronting-global-grand-challenges\/"},"modified":"2016-07-20T07:31:53","modified_gmt":"2016-07-20T14:31:53","slug":"confronting-global-grand-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/blog\/confronting-global-grand-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Confronting Global Grand Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MicrosoftOn March 12 and 13, I had the privilege of joining with more than 450 leading thinkers drawn from around the world and across disciplines at the inaugural Global Grand Challenges Summit (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> in London. Organized by the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> in partnership with the US National Academy of Engineering (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, the summit brought together engineers, artists, economists, designers, philosophers, scientists, politicians, industry leaders, educators, and policymakers, all striving to achieve the cross-discipline and international cooperation needed to solve global problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Grand Challenges were organized around six themes: sustainability, health, education, enriching life, technology, and growth and resilience. The summit also included plenary addresses from Craig Venter (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, founder of J. Craig Venter Institute (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, who spoke about the promises and problems of creating synthetic life, and Bill Gates (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, co-founder and trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, who discussed challenges in global health. Among the other luminaries present were IET President and tech entrepreneur Andy Hopper (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, who addressed the technology and growth theme, and Dame Ann Dowling (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, who spoke on directions in education. The presence of David Willetts (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, the UK minister for universities and sciences, underscored the significance of the summit as a vehicle for innovations and learning. An additional highlight was the surprise address from will.i.am—singer in the band, the Black Eyed Peas—who made a passionate plea for the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education for underprivileged children. Acknowledging that many of these youngsters aspire to a successful music career like his, he wants these children to realize that a much wider range of career opportunities is open to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

I served on the joint organizing committee for the event, representing the Royal Academy of Engineering. My best contribution was organizing the Student Day, which took place on the Monday before the beginning of the summit. Microsoft Research Connections sponsored this event that brought together 60 undergraduate and post-graduate students to collectively tackle the following six grand challenges:<\/span><\/p>\n