Ray Kurzweil will join New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and two other journalists in a National Academy of Engineering symposium on communicating the “Grand Challenges for Engineering,” to be webcast on Monday Oct. 6 at 9:30 a.m. EDT (register for webcast here).

The Grand Challenges for Engineering project is designed to spark public discussion and awareness of ways that engineering can improve how we live, including making solar energy affordable, reverse-engineering the brain, and engineering better medicines.

Full program:

Moderator: Aaron Brown, Walter Cronkite Professor of Journalism, Arizona State University, former CNN and ABC News anchor

9:30 – 9:40 a.m. Welcome
Charles M. Vest, president, National Academy of Engineering, former president of MIT

9:40 – 10:00 a.m. Overview of the Grand Challenges
The Honorable William J. Perry*, professor, Stanford University, former U.S. Secretary of Defense, and chair, Grand Challenges for Engineering committee

10:00 – 10:45 a.m. Panel Discussion
How do we more effectively communicate the Grand Challenges, and the steps necessary to address them, to the public?

Panelists:

Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist, author of The World is Flat and Hot, Flat, and Crowded
Bernadine Healy*, U.S. News & World Report columnist, former head of the National Institutes of Health and the American Red Cross
Ray Kurzweil*, Kurzweil Technologies, author of The Singularity is Near (participating via video conference from China)
Daniel Sieberg, CBS News science and technology correspondent

*Grand Challenges for Engineering Committee Member

10:45 – 11:00 a.m. Audience Q&A Session

11:00 – 11:30 a.m. Break

11:30 a.m – 12:15 p.m. Panel Discussion