The Frontiers of Engineering program brings together through 2-1/2 day meetings a select group of emerging engineering leaders from industry, academe, and government labs to discuss pioneering technical work and leading edge research in various engineering fields and industry sectors. The goal of the meetings is to introduce these outstanding early career engineers to each other, and through this interaction facilitate collaboration in engineering, the transfer of new techniques and approaches across fields, and establishment of contacts among the next generation of engineering leaders.

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  • Meredith Sellers
    Managing Engineer
    Exponent

    I specialize in materials characterization and incident investigation, particularly as they relate to oil and gas pipelines, process piping, integrated circuit fabrication, and chemical process safety.

    FOE allowed me the opportunity to network and learn from diverse groups of American and European engineers. The technical sessions were thought-provoking and catalyzed lively interdisciplinary discussions. 

  • Youssef Marzouk
    Associate Professor, Aeronautics and Astronautics
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    My research interests lie at the intersection of physical modeling with statistics and computation. I'm particularly motivated by engineering and geophysical applications where learning from data and quantifying uncertainty in predictions play a key role.

    FOE was a unique opportunity to connect with accomplished researchers from the entire range of engineering disciplines, and to develop a broader understanding of what it takes to make our work have an impact on society. 

  • Katherine Dykes
    Senior Engineer
    National Renewable Energy Lab

    I lead a group that seeks to integrate wind turbine, plant engineering, and cost models to enable full-system analysis, and to apply a variety of advanced analysis methods to the study of wind plant system performance and cost.

    Working at a national laboratory in an applied research area, I really enjoy interacting with so many experts with similar focus. However, a lot of interesting ideas and research questions come from being exposed to completely different state-of-the-art research. Interacting with people from all different fields of engineering at the FOE conference was inspiring and has helped shape how I think about my own research. 

  • Eric Ruggiero
    Engineering Leader
    GE Aviation

    I invent the future of flight at the intersection of aero and thermal technologies, additive manufacturing, and large-scale digital data streams.

    Frontiers of Engineering highlights the importance of diversity of thought in driving innovation. At FOE, experts from disparate fields come together to learn, debate, and bring new perspectives to cutting-edge research fields. Bringing these diverse thoughts – and incredible people – together results in fantastic new insights to inspire future research directions. FOE is a model forum for all engineering disciplines.

  • Lauren Stadler
    Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
    Rice University

    My research focuses on sustainable design of biological treatment processes to recover energy, water, and nutrient resources from wastewater, and understanding the potential human health impacts of recycled wastewater resources.

    FOE is a great way to meet and interact with other early-career engineers and scientists and gain exposure to cutting-edge research both in and outside of my field. It helped me think about my own research in a new light and form relationships with colleagues and future collaborators.

  • Takanari Inoue
    Associate Professor, Cell Biology
    Johns Hopkins University

    Our research focuses on synthetic cell biology that not only dissects but also generates and re-engineers information transfer in living cells. 

    I really liked the international FOE symposium, which provided valuable opportunities to network with cool engineers doing some great science in another country.

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  • Features

  • News + Events

    • April 23, 2018
      Flare-responsive Hydrogel Developed to Treat Arthritis
      Jeff Karp (USFOE 2007) at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital has bioengineered a soft, flexible hydrogel that can be loaded with arthritis drugs and injected locally into an inflamed joint to treat unpredictable and often sudden worsening of arthritis symptoms, which can be debilitating.
    • April 19, 2018
      Meet TESS, Seeker of Alien Worlds
      MIT's Sara Seager (USFOE 2015) worked on the team that developed the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, bristling with cameras and ambition to scan for alien worlds, that launched April 18 on a SpaceX Falcon 9, taking the torch from Kepler.
    • April 16, 2018
      Future Electric Cars Could Recharge Wirelessly While You Drive
      Khurram Afridi (USFOE 2017) at the University of Colorado Boulder is engineering wireless power transfer of electrical energy through electric fields at very high frequencies.
    • April 12, 2018
      Cracking the Code for Lexus' Bioinspired Color
      Toyota's Debasish Banerjee (USFOE 2015) developed “omnidirectional” structural color, a unique and colorless nanostructure that reflects or absorbs certain wavelengths of light and does not change when viewed from different angles.
    • April 9, 2018
      Californians Embracing Recycled Drinking Water
      NAE member David Sedlak (IAFOE 2010) at UC Berkeley notes that Californians are becoming more accepting of recycled water to help manage the effects of droughts and climate change.
    • April 5, 2018
      Drone Delivery Could Save Energy and Emissions
      Joshuah Stolaroff at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is studying the impacts of replacing diesel-powered delivery trucks with drones.
    • April 2, 2018
      Cat-like Hearing with Device Tens of Trillions Times Smaller Than Human Eardrum
      Philip Feng (USFOE 2013) at Case Western Reserve University is developing "drumheads" that will likely contribute to making the next generation of ultralow-power communications and sensory devices smaller and with greater detection and tuning ranges.
    • March 26, 2018
      A Bumpy, But Necessary, Ride Could Be Ahead
      William Messner (USFOE 1999) at Tufts University discusses the autonomous vehicle industry following the recent fatality involving Uber.
    • March 22, 2018
      MIT Team Serves Chips to Advance Biomed Tests
      NAE member and FOE alum Linda Griffith at MIT has created a “body on a chip” that can test the effects of medications on the human body, which could lead to more accurate research and eliminate the need for animal testing.
    • March 15, 2018
      NAE Awards The Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering Grants for Advancement of Interdisciplinary Research
      Two Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering Grants of $30,000 each have been awarded to attendees of the National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) 2017 US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium.
    • March 15, 2018
      Nanoscale Metal Structures from Organic Molecules
      FOE alum Julia Greer at CalTech has used a new 3D printing technique to produce complex nanoscale metal structures that are orders of magnitude smaller than previously possible, which could be used to engineer tiny medical implants, 3D logic circuits on computer chips, and ultra-lightweight aircraft components.
    • March 12, 2018
      Wearable Throat Sensor Holds Promise for Stroke Rehab
      FOE alum and NAE member John Rogers at Northwestern University has developed a bandage-like throat sensor that measures a patient's swallowing ability and patterns of speech, which can aid in the diagnosis and treatment of aphasia, a communication disorder associated with stroke.
    • March 5, 2018
      Show Me a (Smart) Sign
      FOE alum Alexandre Bayen at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Berkeley said Caltrans' electronic message highway signs on I-80 give drivers a chance to take action based on what's ahead.
    • March 1, 2018
      Happy Accident Leads to Discovery for Plastic Electronics
      Ying Diao (USFOE 2017) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that shape-shifting organic crystals use memory. Shape-memory materials science and plastic electronics technology could open the door to advancements in low-power electronics, medical electronics devices, and multifunctional shape-memory materials.
    • February 26, 2018
      This Circuit Will Self-destruct
      Cornell's Amit Lal (USFOE 2001) is engineering a new way of triggering electronic circuits to self-destruct, an advance that could help protect sensitive data and one day be used in biomedicine.
    • February 22, 2018
      Low-Cost Carbon Fiber Project Advances to Pilot Phase
      FOE alum Bill Grieco at Southern Research is engineering a multistep catalytic process for conversion of sugars from non-food biomass to acrylonitrile – a key precursor in the production of high strength and light weight carbon fiber, with applications in defense, space, aviation, automotive, wind turbine production, and sporting goods manufacturing.
    • February 15, 2018
      One in Seven Newly-Elected NAE Members Are FOE Alumni
      Check out the list of 13 FOE alumni newly-elected as NAE members.
    • February 12, 2018
      Rotational 3D Printing for High Strength Materials
      NAE member Jennifer Lewis (USFOE 2000) at Harvard and Brett Compton (JAFOE 2016) at the University of Tennessee have engineered rotational 3D printing to create structural materials optimized for strength and damage tolerance.
    • February 8, 2018
      Nike Leaps Forward on Renewables
      Nike's Cyrus Wadia (USFOE 2011) is implementing sustainable initiatives that remove barriers to harnessing clean energy technologies in order to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and decrease climate change risks.
    • February 5, 2018
      Engineers Reinvent the Inductor
      Kaustav Banerjee (GAFOE 2015) at the University of California, Santa Barbara is developing inductors for ultra-compact wireless communication systems for applications in the Internet of Things (IoT), sensing, and energy storage and transfer.
    • February 1, 2018
      Rapid 3D Printer Performs 10 Times Faster Than Current Models
      MIT's John Hart (USFOE 2010) is developing 3D printing processes that can produce parts in minutes rather than hours, which is too long to wait in modern manufacturing.
    • January 29, 2018
      Living Tattoo with Engineered Bacteria
      FOE alumni Xuanhe Zhao (USFOE 2013) and Timothy Lu (CAFOE 2017) formed an interdisciplinary team at MIT that is engineering technologies based on responsive materials, gels, and polymers, including a variety of inks for 3D printing. Applications include flexible patches that will detect environmental stimuli such as pollutants, changes in pH, and temperature.
    • January 25, 2018
      FOE Alumni Among the National Academy of Inventors 2017 Fellows
      Check out the list of 12 FOE alumni selected as NAI 2017 Fellows.
    • January 22, 2018
      New Path to Photovoltaics for Improved Efficiency
      Duke University's Adrienne Stiff-Roberts (EU-US FOE 2016) hopes to open a whole new world of materials to the solar cell industry with these materials that could also be useful for other applications, such as light-emitting diodes, photodetectors, and X-ray detectors.
    • January 11, 2018
      Manipulating Hydrogel Into 3D Forms
      FOE alum and NAE member Subra Suresh at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore is directing the growth of hydrogel to mimic plant or animal tissue structure and shapes, an advance with potential applications in medical and robotics fields.
    • January 8, 2018
      Brain-mimicking Neuromorphic Computer Chips for RoboBee
      FOE alum Silvia Ferrari at Cornell is developing event-based sensing and control algorithms that use significantly less power than traditional processors and packed into smaller payloads that would enable robot insects to react to the unpredictable scenarios in the real world.
    • January 4, 2018
      Shark-like Sensor That Detects Electrical Signals in Water
      Purdue's Shriram Ramanathan has developed a sensor that can detect minute electrical signals travelling through salt water, and is robust enough to survive the harsh conditions of frigid seas, which could help study marine ecosystems and organisms or could detect shipping movement for commercial or military maritime applications.
    • December 21, 2017
      Extreme Electronics for the Extremes of Space
      Stanford's Debbie Senesky (USFOE 2016) works at the intersection of aerospace and electrical engineering to develop new semiconductor materials that can survive the heat of Venus, where the surface temperatures are enough to melt lead. Learn more about her research during this appearance on the Future of Everything radio show.
    • December 18, 2017
      Bacteria-killing Nanospikes on Stainless Steel
      FOE alum Julie Champion's process at Georgia Tech could offer a solution to microbial contamination on implantable medical devices and on food processing equipment. In addition to its antibacterial effects, the nano-texturing also appears to improve corrosion resistance.
    • December 14, 2017
      Using WWII Code-breaking Techniques to Interpret Brain Data
      Konrad Kording (USFOE 2017) at the University of Pennsylvania is using cryptographic techniques to decode brain data to predict which direction monkeys will move their arms. The same cryptography-inspired technique could eventually be used to decode more complex patterns of muscle activation for use in prosthetic devices or even speech, to aid those with total paralysis.
    • December 11, 2017
      New Ultrathin Semiconductor Materials Exceed Some of Silicon’s ‘Secret’ Powers
      Stanford's Eric Pop (JAFOE 2014) is developing semiconductors just a few atoms thick for the next generation of feature-filled and energy-efficient electronics.
    • December 7, 2017
      Manufacturing Cell Therapies: The Paradigm Shift in Health Care of This Century
      Sheng Lin-Gibson (CAFOE 2011) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology describes the potential shift from the traditional paradigm of health care to one with greater focus on regenerative and curative treatments.
    • December 4, 2017
      Make the Bugs in Our Bodies Work for Us
      MIT's Timothy Lu (CAFOE 2017) founded two companies spun off from his labwork that are looking to manipulate the bacteria in our bodies by adding or removing microbial agents to solve very different problems.
    • November 30, 2017
      Early Warning When Crops Are in Danger
      NAE member Michael Strano (USFOE 2007) at MIT has developed sensors that when printed on leaves could tell farmers when to water crops.
    • November 17, 2017
      Fellowship Available for Undergrad Women in Aerospace
      Virgin Orbit's Will Pomerantz (EU-US FOE 2017) founded the Brooke Owens Fellowship Program, which offers paid internships and executive-level mentorship to extraordinary undergraduate women seeking careers in aviation or space exploration. Application deadline is December 5.
    • November 13, 2017
      A To-Do List for Your Housecleaning Robot
      Pieter Abbeel (USFOE 2012) and his new startup Embodied Intelligence are intent on bringing a new level of robotic automation to the world’s factories, warehouses, and perhaps even homes, using an algorithmic method called reinforcement learning — a way for machines to learn tasks by extreme trial and error.
    • November 9, 2017
      Carbon Nanotube-based Fibers Could Rival Copper in Antennas
      Rice University's Matteo Pasquali (USFOE 2008) is developing fibers that when configured as wireless antennas can be as good as copper antennas but 20 times lighter. The strong, flexible, and conductive fibers could help engineers in streamlining materials for airplanes, spacecraft, and wrist-worn health monitors and clothing.
    • November 6, 2017
      A Camouflaged Membrane That Hides Like an Octopus
      Cornell's Robert Shepherd (USFOE 2016) has created a thin membrane that contorts into complex 3-D shapes — much like the shape-shifting skin of an octopus — that can inflate in seconds to the shapes of everyday objects, such as potted plants or a cluster of stones.
    • November 2, 2017
      Competitive Pesto - Now That's Italian!
      Mechanical engineer Marcello Canova (CAFOE 2011) at Ohio State University won the regional qualifying competition and is heading for the 2018 Genoa World Pesto Championship, where he will employ a traditional mortar and pestle to go for the title.
    • October 30, 2017
      Have You Seen My Medical Nanobot?
      CalTech electrical engineer Azita Emami and chemical engineer Mikhail Shapiro, who both participated in USFOE 2017, have developed a technique which allows smart pills, aka capsule endoscopes, to be located in the body using magnetic fields.
    • October 23, 2017
      Programed Bacteria Build Working Electronic Sensor
      Duke University's Lingchong You (CAFOE 2017) demonstrated that bacteria can be programed to self-organize into a form that the cells themselves can transform into components of a working sensor. This approach could be attractive because tweaking growth instructions to create different shapes and patterns could be much cheaper and faster than casting the new dies or moulds needed for traditional manufacturing.
    • October 19, 2017
      Two FOE Alumni Elected to National Academy of Medicine
      Christopher Bowman (USFOE 2002) at the University of Colorado, Boulder and Arup Chakraborty at MIT were among the 70 regular members and 10 international members recently elected by National Academy of Medicine (NAM). Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.
    • October 16, 2017
      Advocating for Women in Engineering
      FOE alum Andrew Alleyne at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign has been named a recipient of the 2017 Advocating for Women in Engineering Award. The award is presented by the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and honors individuals who have demonstrated professional excellence in their chosen STEM fields and have proven to be advocates of women in engineering and SWE’s objectives.
    • October 12, 2017
      Emmanuel Candès Named MacArthur Fellow
      Emmanuel Candès (EU-US FOE 2010) at Stanford University was among the 24 individuals recently named as MacArthur Fellows. With applications in healthcare, digital photography, radar imaging, and wireless communications, the framework he developed holds promise for phase retrieval, a problem arising in many applications such as crystallography, diffraction imaging (X-ray), and astronomical instrumentation.
    • October 9, 2017
      Mining Health Information from Sweat
      FOE alum Shu Yang at the University of Pennsylvania is using a $100,000 grant from the Keck Futures Initiative—a project of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that supports forward-thinking, highly interdisciplinary collaborations—to develop a garment that gathers health information from its wearer through his or her sweat. Her team's nanotechnology-inspired yarn can be knitted like its conventional counterparts and could alert the wearer to potential adverse health indications, such as heat stroke.
    • October 5, 2017
      The Power of Kirigami
      Cornell University's Jenny Sabin (USFOE 2017) collaborates across disciplines on architectural designs that can adapt and respond to environmental conditions. By exploring new ways to construct 3-D structures out of 2-D surfaces that can be manufactured and transported easily, they can achieve economy through saving materials for assembly and construction and efficiency of digital fabrication planning.
    • September 21, 2017
      An Easier Prescription
      At Carnegie Mellon University, FOE alumni Kathryn Whitehead and Alan Russell have created a packaged protein that survives digestion-like conditions and is easily transported across the intestinal barrier in a cell culture model, paving the way for oral alternatives to injectable medications.
    • September 18, 2017
      Unique Collaboration Between Engineering Disciplines on Path to Synthetic Muscle
      FOE alum Philip LeDuc at Carnegie Mellon University has taken a multidisciplinary approach to combining computational design search methods with biomechanical fundamentals to develop synthetic muscles for applications in regenerative medicine or robotics.
    • September 14, 2017
      Professor Tells Students to "Break the Robot"
      FOE alum Dennis Hong at UCLA encourages his students to push the limits when building faster, stronger robots that do the three "D"s - work that is dirty, dull, or dangerous.
    • September 11, 2017
      Drone World Speed Record
      FOE alum James Gregory at Ohio State University set world records for speed and longest out-and-back for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) of any size, pending verification. With sustained average speeds of 147 mph over a 28-mile course, the 70-pound autonomous jet aircraft opens up new capabilities for applications such as rapid package delivery or search-and-rescue, where both high speed and long range are mission critical.
    • September 7, 2017
      FOE Women Among MIT's 35 Innovators Under 35
      Amanda Randles (USFOE 2017), Jenna Wiens (JAFOE 2016), Phillipa Gill (GAFOE 2015), Franziska Roesner (USFOE 2015), and Suchi Saria (USFOE 2017) are among the inspiring and creative innovators selected this year for working on the most important emerging technologies across a broad spectrum of engineering fields.
    • July 17, 2017
      Check out July 19-20 Webcast: 2017 Global Grand Challenges Summit
      Tune in for the webcast beginning on July 19 of the 2017 Global Grand Challenges Summit (GGCS), which aims to spark global collaborations that lead to innovative ways of addressing critically important engineering challenges and inspiring the next generation of change makers.
    • June 21, 2017
      Innovative Young Engineers Selected to Participate in 2017 US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium
      Eighty three of the nation’s brightest young engineers have been selected to take part in the National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) 23rd annual US Frontiers of Engineering (USFOE) symposium.
    • February 2, 2017
      What Happens at the US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium?
      Read papers from the 2016 US FOE online, or purchase the publication in print. Included is leading-edge research in virtual reality headsets, autonomous precision landing of space rockets, new materials for emerging desalination technologies, and engineering immunity against cancer, among other topics.