Electrification. Electronics, computers and the internet. Radio, TV and highways.

These are just some of the greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century.  This site lists down the top 20.
Now living in the 21st century, we probably take these for granted. I combed through each one and initially concluded that there were only two items I have not encountered or used personally. I was wrong since number 20 is extensively used in medicine, specially with cancer treatment. That leaves only number 12, but that is something that I hope Sir Richard Branson and his baby or kin would give me the opportunity to experience.

The current time also leaves us with a lot of obstacles, identified here.

With input from people around the world — much of it on this website – an international group of leading technological thinkers were asked to identify the Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st Century.

They came up with these:

Make solar energy economical
Provide energy from fusion
Develop carbon sequestration methods
Manage the nitrogen cycle
Provide access to clean water
Restore and improve urban infrastructure
Advance health informatics
Engineer better medicines
Reverse-engineer the brain
Prevent nuclear terror
Secure cyberspace
Enhance virtual reality
Advance personalized learning
Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

If the world can overcome all of these challenges, a new era will dawn upon us. I can’t even begin to imagine how things would be much better.
Already, thinkers, inventors, researchers, engineers and scientists are working on these.

Every person on earth stand to benefit from solving these riddles.

There is also a poll on the site that ranked “Making solar energy economical” as the most “popular/important” challenge. I agree. But there is another challenge that is close to my heart which is Advanced Personal Learning. I think this is key to solving poverty, wars and disease. If this is solved, I think the rest would just follow.

Which challenge, when solved, would create the greatest impact on our world?