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How can engineering research help to solve the world’s most pressing problems?
Engineering encompasses a wide range of different disciplines, from chemical engineering to mechatronics. Linking this diverse field is the desire to use scientific and technological knowledge to change our physical world in useful ways. Most of us want the change that we cause to be positive, but how do we go about maximising our positive impact as engineers?
Historically, engineering research has gone hand-in-hand with invention and innovation, and often transforms society. Examples include: Fritz Haber and the Haber-Bosch process that produces the fertiliser that supports more than half the world’s population today (but also not forgetting his role in developing chemical weapons); Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his designs that revolutionised public transportation and modern civil engineering; and Hedy Lamarr and the “frequency hopping” technique she developed, which is used in modern wireless communication (such as WiFi).
Engineering research is pivotal for addressing the global problems we face today. In our research directions below we introduce several examples of problems that engineers could tackle that seem particularly important. Climate change may be the most familiar to engineers, and there are many under-explored opportunities for engineers to have an impact in this area. Researching sustainable and affordable technologies for the developing world could enable the world’s poorest people to raise their quality of life more quickly and sustainably. Engineering research into technologies to prevent pandemics and increase our resilience against them could potentially save millions of future lives.
Engineering has always been a cornerstone of civilisation, and there are many ways it can contribute to making civilisation more resilient against all kinds of threats. There are many other pressing problems, such as animal suffering, that engineers can contribute to.
Writing a thesis focused on any of these pressing problems could help prepare you to do valuable and impactful work on these problems later in your career, whether you decide to stay in academia or go into industry.
Resources
Examples of work on some of the research directions we recommend
There are plenty of examples of recent work related to our the research directions below. Here are a few:
- Research into resilient food solutions provides blueprints for how to keep people alive in the event of a global catastrophe that shocks the world’s food systems.
- The Free Appropriate Sustainable Technology (FAST) research group explores how open-source hardware can drive the adoption of solar photovoltaic technology and resilient foods in the event of catastrophe.
- This deep dive into cultivated meat bioprocess design from the Good Food Institute explores the current state of the research field.
- This talk from Anemone Franz, Jasper Götting explores promising technical interventions against catastrophic biological risks.
Research agendas and potential sources of research questions
You can find many sources of research questions that an engineering student could tackle below:
Animal welfare
- Career Guide for Ending Factory Farming – Jeffray Behr
- Engineering research projects in alternative proteins – The Good Food Institute
- Pathways in cultivated protein – Cellular Agriculture Australia
- Research priorities — Wild Animal Initiative
- Thesis Ideas – Fish Welfare
AI safety and governance
- Expert in AI hardware – 80000 Hours
- Information security in high-impact areas – 80000 Hours
- Transformative AI and Compute – EA Forum
- What does it mean to become an expert in AI Hardware? – EA Forum
- AI Governance Needs Technical Work – EA Forum
- Transformative AI and Compute – Reading List
Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness
- The Apollo Program for Biodefense – Winning the Race Against Biological Threats
- Biosecurity needs engineers and materials scientists – EA Forum
- Technologies to Address Global Catastrophic Biological Risks
- List of lists of concrete biosecurity project ideas
Other existential and global catastrophic risks
- Climate change – 80,000 Hours
- Neglected solutions to climate change – Clean Air Task Force
- Risks from atomically precise manufacturing from 80000 hours
- Thesis ideas – ALLFED
- What can we learn from a short preview of a super-eruption and what are some tractable ways of mitigating it – EA Forum
Human health and well-being
Other useful resources
- High Impact Engineers’ Top Tips for Engineers at University
- See also High Impact Engineers’ network and list of resources.
Contributors
This profile was published 25/02/2023. Thanks to Jessica Wen for creating this introduction and Lennart Heim for helpful feedback.
Explore our recommended research directions relating to engineering
Alternative proteins research and development
The consumption of animal products causes suffering to billions of animals each year. Alternatives could shift consumer demand away from animal products.
Cause specific mortality in wild animals
Understanding the causes of wild animal mortality can help us build a picture of the current state of welfare in nature and how we can improve it.
Detection and identification of dangerous pathogens
Using metagenomic surveillance and broad-spectrum diagnostics to detect dangerous pathogens.
Developing solutions to climate change
Climate change is already causing suffering on a huge scale, and may increasingly contribute to many different crises in future. Although many resources are already dedicated to this area, there are gaps that further research is needed to fill.
Improving aquatic animal welfare
How can we help the hundreds of billions of aquatic animals that are raised and killed for human consumption every year?
Medical interventions against dangerous pathogens
To address future pandemics, we need medical interventions against pathogens to be faster to produce, effective against a broad range of threats, and cheaper and easier to produce at scale.
Non-pharmaceutical pandemic interventions
How does the transmission of dangerous pathogens occur and how can innovation in areas such as testing, PPE, distancing and contact tracing reduce transmission?
Resilient foods research
How would we feed everyone in the event of a global catastrophe, such as the sun being blocked during a nuclear winter or significant disruption to electricity or industry?
Risks from volcanic eruptions
Volcanic eruptions could lead to catastrophe by causing food shortages and disruption to vital global systems. How can we monitor and mitigate the risks?