The industrial revolution of the late 1800’s heralded the beginning of the rapid acceleration of human technological progress.  For thousands of years before, agriculture, transportation, and materials had changed relatively little, yet the decades and centuries afterwards would include scores of revolutionary advances.  Technology is self-perpetuating; as it grows more sophisticated and more prevalent within society it is pushed to become more advanced even faster than before.  This trend will continue in the next century, giving engineering and its advances increasing importance in society.  Ultimately, technology and engineering will allow human beings to become the only known animals to truly transcend the traditional constraints of environment and scarcity.

 

Future engineers will perfect machines of molecular size, allowing them to cheaply and directly manipulate the basic structure of matter.  This, along with other innovations, will result in light new materials with astounding strength and durability, allowing USC engineers to design buildings immune to earthquake damage.  Advances in materials science will facilitate a variety of inventions throughout the engineering world, from cars that travel at ludicrous speeds safely to flexible, controllable prosthetics that look and feel true to life.  As robotic technology becomes progressively more advanced, engineers will be able to automate an increasing number of tasks.  In some places, human physical labor could be replaced completely, granting the population the freedom to focus purely on intellectual pursuits or simply lead a life of ease and joy. 

 

Engineers of the future will face problems largely identical to those that have plagued humankind throughout its existence: starvation, disease, natural disaster, and other problems of environment.  However, future individuals will have the unique opportunity to actually handle these complex issues.  Molecular sized machines will revolutionize medical technology, especially in terms of anti-viral capability.  Nanotechnology will lead to a cure for the dreaded HIV virus.  Derivatives of these innovations will be constructed to seek out and destroy harmful pollutants in the environment.  Additionally, engineers will improve electric fuel cell, solar and hydroelectric power, and other clean sources of energy.  Collectively, engineering advances will largely eliminate the harmful byproducts of human society. 

 

During the next century the ballooning human population will necessitate increases in food production.  Engineers will address this need by constructing advanced, sealed hydroponics farm facilities.  Crops would be managed remotely and tended by robotic machines with perfect efficiency; such facilities would allow for farming irrespective of local soil or weather conditions and essentially turn the entire Earth into arable land.  Increasingly effective networks of transportation will ensure that the ample supplies of food can be distributed cheaply to any location on Earth.

           

Engineers will further tackle problems of overpopulation by using advanced materials to build cities that stretch high into the sky.  Massive skyscrapers that are taller and wider yet still safer than those of today will characterize the expanding urban areas of the world.  Building upwards instead of outwards is simply immensely more efficient in terms of space, helping to make room for the masses of the future.  The catastrophic effects of natural disasters like tsunamis and hurricanes will be minimized in the communities of the future, and cheap, safe housing will be provided throughout the world.  Ultimately, technology will provide the means to finally eliminate scarcity, the issue that has defined the direction of human progress for thousands of years. 

           

Engineering and technology have grown tremendously more important in human society as it has progressed, a trend which will only continue during the next century.  Humanity will become more connected to global communication and information networks.  These networks will allow for the emergence of a global culture unified by a desire to consume the next exciting new technology.

           

An engineering education at USC after the next century will likely cover many of the same topics as today, but merely as background knowledge to begin understanding the innovations of the era.  The focus will be much more theoretical as opposed to “hands on”, since physical engineering duties will be carried out by robotic assistants.  The students of tomorrow will have an unprecedented privilege to never be the victims of human physical fallibility; instead they will be limited only by the magnitude of their intellect.