The College of Engineering joined 121 other U.S. engineering schools this week in presenting a joint letter of commitment to President Obama, answering his call to lead the way in addressing  21st-century “Grand Challenges.”

The letter states: “We, the undersigned deans of engineering schools across the United States, commit to educate a new generation of engineers expressly equipped to meet societal challenges identified through national initiatives including the White House Strategy for American Innovation, the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges for Engineering, and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.”

The challenges, according to the letter, include complex yet vital aspirations such as reverse-engineering the brain, making solar energy cost-competitive with coal, engineering better medicines, providing access to clean water for nearly a billion people who lack it, ending extreme poverty and hunger, securing cyberspace, and advancing personalized learning tools that deliver better education to more people.

Obama received the letter March 23 during the fifth White House Science Fair.

Dean Enrique J. Lavernia signed for the College of Engineering and also sent his own letter of commitment to the president. Lavernia describes his college’s ongoing effort to strengthen engineering design education across the curriculum, and tells how this effort is now being combined with a transition to Grand Challenges-focused projects.

“We recognized the need for a design-centric educational program that engages engineering students in learning leadership, social, entrepreneurship and global skills, and how these skills are applied in solving Grand Challenges,” Lavernia wrote.

His letter also references his college’s Engineering Design Showcase held in June; a new course offered for the first time last spring, “Starting and Prototyping a Technology Venture”; and the Engineering Student Startup Center, a lab for prototype development.

Follow Dateline UC Davis on Twitter.