The world is experiencing a wave of change accelerated by technological progress, evolving societal needs and expectations, and growing environmental imperatives. To help society successfully confront these challenges and flourish as this future unfolds, the engineering community must dramatically adapt. We must step up our contributions as stewards of technology, the natural and built environments, and the public health, safety, and welfare to shape the future for the benefit of society. This imperative has driven the formation and evolution of Engineering Change Lab – USA (ECL), a non-profit, social change lab that seeks to be a catalyst for change within the engineering community. ECL convenes individuals from across the engineering community to share perspectives, provoke new ways of thinking, deepen understanding of the engineering community’s emerging future, and launch experiments and focused initiatives. We hope to inspire change leaders who can develop and lead solutions to create a resilient, thriving world. We serve as a connector, convener, and communications hub, complementing the work of other engineering organizations. Learn more at ECL-USA.org. ECL has held 16 summits over the last five years. Each summit is a deep dive into an issue that is important to advancing the contributions of the engineering community. Previous summits have focused on topics that are internal to the engineering community (diversity, education, licensure, and impacts of emerging technologies) as well as topics related to the external role of the engineering community in society (macro-ethics, public policy, climate change, and racial inequality). This session will provide an overview of ECL and will focus on learning from ECL summits regarding the leadership needed from the engineering community to increase our contributions to the challenges of the 21st century. The session will include opportunities for audience interaction, which is at the core of ECL learning principles.
