{"id":49025,"date":"2023-03-28T09:54:17","date_gmt":"2023-03-28T13:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=49025"},"modified":"2023-03-28T09:54:19","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T13:54:19","slug":"grand-challenges-scholars-program-coming-to-utc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2023\/03\/grand-challenges-scholars-program-coming-to-utc\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand Challenges Scholars Program coming to UTC"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The

The College of Engineering and Computer Science, in partnership with the Honors College, will be participating in the Grand Challenges Scholars Program. Photo by Angela Foster.<\/p><\/div>\n

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga will be the newest institution participating in the Grand Challenges Scholars Program, an initiative supported by the National Academy of Engineering to educate a new generation of engineers expressly equipped to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing society in the 21st century.<\/p>\n

The Grand Challenges Scholars Program<\/strong><\/a>, implemented at fewer than 100 universities nationwide, is a curriculum-integrated, co-curricular and extracurricular program with five competencies designed to prepare the next generation of students to address society\u2019s grand challenges. Once accepted into the GCSP, each institution creates its own program for implementing the competencies.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The UTC GCSP will begin in the fall 2023 semester as a partnership between the College of Engineering and Computer Science and the Honors College\u2014with participation from the other colleges on campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be the first college- or department-specific honors program on campus beyond the Honors College,\u201d said UTC Honors College Dean Linda Frost, \u201cand I believe this is the first Grand Challenges anywhere that\u2019s an actual collaboration between an Honors College and a College of Engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the GCSP website, an international group of leading technological thinkers were asked around 15 years ago to identify the Grand Challenges for improving life on the planet in the 21st century.<\/p>\n

These 14 Grand Challenges, which range from making solar energy economical to securing cyberspace to providing access to clean water, were announced in 2008 and fall into four themes: sustainability, health, security and joy of living. The GCSP was then established to incentivize engineering programs to focus on these big-picture issues.<\/p>\n

Frost has been involved with bringing the GCSP initiative to UTC for several years, along with\u2014among others\u2014College of Engineering and Computer Science Dean Daniel Pack, Guerry Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering Daniel Loveless and UC Foundation Professor of Mechanical Engineering Cecelia Wigal.<\/p>\n

Frost was introduced to the program at a national conference, saying she was fascinated after learning directly from undergraduate students about the types of projects they were involved in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the Grand Challenges model and find it extremely interesting,\u201d Frost said. \u201cYou can tell that engineers put it together because it\u2019s sustainable, and while it\u2019s driven by engineering, it\u2019s very interdisciplinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students participating in the GCSP will have to demonstrate competency in each of the five Grand Challenges requirements, including:<\/p>\n