Engineering and Infrastructure

The United States will not regain its leadership in manufacturing by doing more of the same. The country must pursue new paradigms to invoke technological surprise and spur leaps in productivity.

New York City is the perfect place to understand the importance of modern engineering, but the most valuable lessons won’t be found at the Empire State Building or in Central Park. To truly understand how modern life works, Guru Madhavan looks at the uncelebrated elements of New York infrastructure: its sewers, bridges, and elevators.

Radical designs for fission and fusion energy systems require engineers who are grounded in technical knowledge, adept at engaging communities in participatory design, and fluent in ethical, equity-centered communication.

The nineteenth-century rivalry between engineer Egbert Viele and architect Frederick Law Olmsted was one of contrasting visions of New York City that still has lessons for engineering today.

A close examination of Mexico’s public earthquake warning system demonstrates that if these technologies are to be effective, they must be integrated into institutional and social infrastructure.

A new occupational category can both create opportunities for workers and position the United States to lead in advanced manufacturing.

The Venice Biennale Architettura 2023 offers age-old and avant-garde insights into engineering design and duty.

Bringing expertise, data, and model development “home” to African countries is interrelated and mutually reinforcing with achieving electrification, development, and climate goals on the continent.

When I was assigned to a federally funded project to revolutionize engineering education at Virginia Tech, I thought being an effective scholar meant shunning my unconventional background. Instead, I had to embrace it.

The grand challenges of engineering are widely celebrated, but the grind challenges—the myriad interlocking tasks that keep our highly engineered world functioning—go unappreciated. Giving them their due provides a more mature vision for conceiving and communicating engineering.

From lifesaving vaccines to weapons of mass destruction, engineers seem willing to enable any enterprise for the right price. How might engineering become better aligned with sustainability, justice, peace, and human rights?