On September 15-16, 2015, organized by the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the US National Academy of Engineering, and the UK Royal Academy of Engineering, the 2nd Global Grand Challenges Summit (GGCS) was held in Beijing at Beijing Conference Center. The College of Engineering of Peking University (PKU) undertook the PKU branch, where many students from PKU attended the meeting and interacted with the summit plenary speakers. The branch was chaired by Prof. Dong Wang, Changhui Li, Yunlong Huo and Xuyun Bao.

This event is the second in a series inspired by the NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering, a series of opportunities, chosen by a committee of some of this generation’s leading technological thinkers and doers, believed to be achievable and sustainable to help people and the planet survive. The first summit held in London in 2013 began an international conversation on advancing solutions to humanity’s grand challenges.

On this year’s summit, over 800 people including members of the academies, experts and college students from China, US and UK participated, focusing on seven themes found in the NAE Grand Challenges report - Sustainability, Infrastructure, Energy, Health, and Joy of Living – along with Education and Security/Resilience.

In addition, College of Engineering helped organize the GGCS Student Day, which took place on September 13, prior to the summit meeting. 15 teams of college students from the above three countries had an engineering design competition, with the theme of tackling the global grand challenges. Prof. Dongxiao Zhang, Dean of the College of Engineering served as the local chair of the event. Prof. Pingrong Yu of the College of Engineering took the role as leader of the judge committee. Assistant Dean Yongmei Li and Media Officer Xuyun Bao participated in the organizing committee.