With input from people around the world, an international group of leading technological thinkers was asked to identify the Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st century. Their 14 game-changing goals for improving life on the planet, announced in 2008, are outlined here. The committee suggested these Grand Challenges fall into four cross-cutting themes: Joy Of Living, Security, Sustainability, and Health.

GCSP at UMBC is designed as a unique interdisciplinary pathways program to assist students in finding solutions to address important problems facing society. Following the guidelines from the NAE, the GCSP at UMBC was developed to help students create a personalized framework around five program areas: research, entrepreneurship, service, interdisciplinarity, and global perspectives that focus on their self-selected grand challenge.