FRONTIERS OF ENGINEERING
REPORTS ON LEADING-EDGE ENGINEERING FROM THE 2007 SYMPOSIUM
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
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NOTICE: This publication has been reviewed according to procedures approved by a National Academy of Engineering report review process. Publication of signed work signifies that it is judged a competent and useful contribution worthy of public consideration, but it does not imply endorsement of conclusions or recommendations by the NAE. The interpretations and conclusions in such publications are those of the authors and do not purport to represent the views of the council, officers, or staff of the National Academy of Engineering.
Funding for the activity that led to this publication was provided by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Department of Defense–DDR&E-Research, National Science Foundation, Microsoft Corporation, Cummins, Inc., and Dr. John A. Armstrong.
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
JULIA M. PHILLIPS (Chair), Director,
Physical, Chemical, and Nano Sciences Center, Sandia National Laboratories
ANA I. ANTÓN, Associate Professor,
Department of Computer Science, North Carolina State University
JOHN DUNAGAN, Researcher,
Distributed Systems and Security Group, Microsoft Research
RICHARD T. ELANDER, Advanced Pretreatment Team Leader,
BioProcess Engineering Group, National Bioenergy Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
CHRISTIAN LEBIERE, Research Scientist,
Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
DONALD J. LEO, Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies,
College of Engineering, Virginia Tech
CAROL R. REGO, Vice President,
CDM
VIJAY SINGH, Associate Professor,
Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
PAUL K. WESTERHOFF, Professor,
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Arizona State University
ROBERT WRAY, Chief Scientist,
Soar Technology
Staff
JANET R. HUNZIKER, Senior Program Officer
VIRGINIA R. BACON, Senior Program Assistant
Preface
This volume highlights the papers presented at the National Academy of Engineering’s 2007 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. Every year, the symposium brings together 100 outstanding young leaders in engineering to share their cutting-edge research and technical work. The 2007 symposium was held September 24-26, and was hosted by Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington. Speakers were asked to prepare extended summaries of their presentations, which are reprinted here. The intent of this volume, and of the volumes that preceded it in the series, is to convey the excitement of this unique meeting and to highlight cutting-edge developments in engineering research and technical work.
GOALS OF THE FRONTIERS OF ENGINEERING PROGRAM
The practice of engineering is continually changing. Engineers today must be able not only to thrive in an environment of rapid technological change and globalization, but also to work on interdisciplinary teams. Cutting-edge research is being done at the intersections of engineering disciplines, and successful researchers and practitioners must be aware of developments and challenges in areas other than their own.
At the 2-1/2–day U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, 100 of this country’s best and brightest engineers, ages 30 to 45, have an opportunity to learn from their peers about pioneering work being done in many areas of engineering. The
symposium gives engineers from a variety of institutions in academia, industry, and government, and from many different engineering disciplines, an opportunity to make contacts with and learn from individuals whom they would not meet in the usual round of professional meetings. This networking may lead to collaborative work and facilitate the transfer of new techniques and approaches. It is hoped that the exchange of information on current developments in many fields of engineering will lead to insights that may be applicable in specific disciplines.
The number of participants at each meeting is limited to 100 to maximize opportunities for interactions and exchanges among the attendees, who are chosen through a competitive nomination and selection process. The choice of topics and speakers for each meeting is made by an organizing committee composed of engineers in the same 30- to 45-year-old cohort as the participants. Each year different topics are covered, and, with a few exceptions, different individuals participate.
Speakers describe the challenges they face and communicate the excitement of their work to a technically sophisticated, but non-specialized audience. Each speaker provides a brief overview of his/her field of inquiry; defines the frontiers of that field; describes experiments, prototypes, and design studies that have been completed or are in progress, as well as new tools and methodologies, and limitations and controversies; and summarizes the long-term significance of his/her work.
THE 2007 SYMPOSIUM
The five general topics covered at the 2007 meeting were: engineering trustworthy computer systems, control of protein conformations, biotechnology for fuels and chemicals, modeling and simulating human behavior, and safe water technologies. The Engineering Trustworthy Computer Systems session focused on the security challenges of current computing infrastructure. Speakers described new software engineering tools and technologies to improve computer security and the public policy issue of whether owners of devices have the right to tinker with them, which might lead to the discovery of system vulnerabilities and, ultimately, to more trustworthy systems.
Control of protein conformations has been made possible by advances in imaging technologies and techniques using mechanical, optical, and magnetic forces to manipulate proteins directly in order to control protein function. These advances are important because understanding cell signaling and protein-protein interactions is central to understanding the properties of biological systems. The presentations described these techniques and their impact on applications in drug discovery, vaccine development, and new methods for tunable biosensors and bioassays.
There is growing concern about the United States’ dependence on imported petroleum for its energy and chemical feedstock supply, particularly in terms of availability and security of future petroleum supplies and impacts of a
petrochemical-based economy on the climate. Talks in the session on biotechnology for fuels and chemicals covered the development and commercial deployment of renewable, sustainable, and cost-effective technologies to meet transportation fuel and chemical feedstock needs. Presenters covered applications of corn products in the polymer and pharmaceutical industries, cosmetics, and drug delivery; biochemical processes, operations, and trends in converting biomass to ethanol; and sustainable biorefineries.
The Modeling and Simulating Human Behavior presentations described how advances in functional brain imaging techniques, computational cognitive architectures, and artificial intelligence have led to a better understanding of brain organization and human performance. With the convergence of disciplines in this field, researchers are contributing to the building of an empirical and computational framework for understanding, modeling, and simulating human behavior. Speakers described the current state and future outlook for research in this area and applications for military training and serious games.
The final session was on safe water technologies. In the United States, approximately 40 billion gallons of water are treated to drinking water standards every day. As safe water resources become scarcer globally and in the United States, it has become increasingly important to create inexpensive, high-volume, and dependable water treatment technologies. Three of the talks featured the latest advances in three technologies for producing high-quality water—ultraviolet irradiation, membrane processes, and biological water treatment. In the final talk, the speaker described challenges in managing the water distribution system, the final frontier in providing safe water to consumers.
In addition to these plenary sessions, there were many opportunities for more informal interactions, including breakout sessions on the first afternoon where participants discussed such issues as, What does sustainability mean for the engineering community? How does one balance family life with a demanding engineering career? What is the role of the social sciences in engineering? How does one balance rigor and creativity in information technology, science, engineering, and design? How can we better prepare Ph.D. engineers for the competitive global marketplace? What are the responsibilities of engineers as members of society, and how are those responsibilities carried out? A summary of the discussions from the breakout groups is included in the Appendixes. On the second afternoon, Microsoft Research engineers and scientists set up a number of displays and demos about research they are doing in surface computing, web security, tablet PCs, and visualization of data in graphs and charts. Participants circulated among the displays and asked questions about the various technologies.
Every year, a distinguished engineer addresses the participants at dinner on the first evening of the symposium. The speaker this year, Henrique (Rico) Malvar, managing director of Microsoft Research, gave the talk. His description of Microsoft Research’s operational underpinnings—an open academic model, long-term focus, informal atmosphere of exchange between researchers and
product-development groups, and recruitment of world-class researchers with diverse backgrounds—provided valuable insight into how one corporate research entity organizes itself to achieve its goals.
NAE is deeply grateful to the following organizations for their support of the 2007 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium: Microsoft Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Department of Defense–DDR&E-Research, National Science Foundation, Cummins Inc., and Dr. John A. Armstrong. NAE would also like to thank the members of the Symposium Organizing Committee (p. iv), chaired by Dr. Julia M. Phillips, for planning and organizing the event.
Contents
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Introduction |
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Privacy in a Networked World |
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Unifying Disparate Tools in Software Security |
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Usable Security: Oxymoron or Challenge? |
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Introduction |
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The Evolutionary Design of Proteins |
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Lighting Up the Mechanome |
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Introduction |
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Corn-Based Materials |
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Process Review of Lignocellulose Biochemical Conversion to Fuel Ethanol |
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Sustainable Biorefineries |
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Introduction |
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Computational Cognitive Neuroscience and Its Applications |
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Barriers, Bridges, and Progress in Cognitive Modeling for Military Applications |
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Modeling of Culturally Affected Human Behavior |
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Introduction |
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Ultraviolet Irradiation: An Age-Old Emerging Technology for Water Treatment |
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Membrane Processes to Address the Global Challenge of Desalination |
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Biological Treatments of Drinking Water |
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Distribution Systems: The Next Frontier |
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