About GCSP
The Grand Challenges Scholars Program (GCSP) Network is a community of students, alumni, faculty, and staff at more than 100 institutions around the world focused on preparing and supporting interdisciplinary globally minded leaders to solve global challenges facing society today.
Each institution in the network has an active Grand Challenges Scholars Program that provides undergraduate students in engineering and other disciplines with opportunities to gain diverse mindsets and skills to address grand challenges.
Students who complete the GCSP graduate as Grand Challenges Scholars, recognized by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).
The History
GCSP was founded in 2009 by engineering Deans Yannis C. Yortsos (USC), Thomas Katsouleas (Duke), and Richard K. Miller (Olin College) in response to the National Academy of Engineering’s 14 Grand Challenges. The three Deans came together to envision an udergraduate program that encouraged and prepared the next generation of engineers to tackle societies most pressing challenges.
Since its conception at the 2009 Engineering Deans summit in Durham, South Carolina, GCSP has grown to include 100+ engineering schools across the globe, graduating the next generation of engineers prepared to tackle societies most pressing challenges. Each year, GCSP institutions come together to celebrate successes, challenges, ideas, practices, and research at the GCSP Annual Meeting. The Grand Challenges Scholars Program offers an in-depth timeline of the creation and progression of GCSP until 2022
The Four Themes of GCSP
The Five Mindsets of GCSP
What we doGCSP revolves around the five Mindsets, or competencies, needed to solve for Grand Challenges using interdisciplinary thinking and collaboration. Students seeking designation as a Grand Challenges Scholar engage in curricular and co-curricular activities relevant to each of the five Mindsets to establish the lens in which they view Grand Challenges. Each GCSP institution will set specific criteria, following the guiding principles and ideology of GCSP, in which they will use to assess their students’ understanding of the five Mindsets and how they relate to Grand Challenges.
Talent, Research
Through mentored research and/or creative projects, students develop capacity to create while showcasing their knowledge and technical skills.Viable Business, Entrepreneurship
Students acquire understanding of the importance of the business and entrepreneurial considerations needed to bring an idea to reality through coursework and/or co-curricular activities.
Multidiciplinary
Students engage in areas outside of their home field of engineering to explore the interconnectedness of various domains and how an engineering mindset can be leveraged for multidisciplinary collaboration.
Multiculturalism
Students immerse themselves in culture(s) other than their own to understand how differences and similarities can be leveraged when developing and implementing viable solutions specific to a group of people or on a global scale.
Social Consciousness
Through involvement in activities related to service and social causes, students learn about the concerns of others and how those concerns must translate over to engineering solutions.
Interested in Being a Part of GCSP?
Faculty, staff, and administrators:
Learn how your institution can become a GCSP Institution
Prospective students: see if your institution is currently
a part of the GCSP Network
Benefits of GCSP for Institutions and Students
GCSP offers students the opportunity to tailor their curricular and co-curricular experiences towards meaningful work, discovery, and academic pursuits that contribute to solving global society’s most pressing challenges. Throughout their undergraduate education, students are required to engage in each of the five Mindsets needed to solve for Grand Challenges (Talent/Research; Viable Business/Entrepreneurship; Multidisciplinary; Multiculturalism; Social Consciousness). Students who receive GCSP Designation in their senior year of undergrad demonstrate their understanding and commitment to the five Mindsets and thus are equipped to make impactful contributions as professionals and scholars. GCSP students are prepared to use an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving, with engineering as the foundation for the multifaceted ways in which they view the world.
While there are fundamental requirements and responsibilities to being a GCSP institution, each GCSP will run with variances within the context of the home institution. However, all GCSPs across colleges and universities within the GCSP Network must support the five Mindsets/Competencies needed to solve for Grand Challenges. This means that GCSP institutions are prepared to assist students with involvement in the curricular and co-curricular activities that will enhance student understanding of the five Mindsets, prepare them to engage with Grand Challenges, and develop a strong CV for the world beyond undergraduate education. If you are a prospective GCSP student, it is encouraged that you contact the GCSP staff at your current institution or the schools in which you are applying to.
Being designated a GCSP institution serves as a stamp of approval that an institution is prepared to offer more than the rigorous coursework that make up the core curriculum of an engineering program. A GCSP institution offers students the chance to explore their interests in Grand Challenges through experiential learning, student organizations, international studies, cross major collaborations, honors societies, learning communities and so much more. GCSP institutions can offer students meaningful experiences created by and for the GCSP, but also help to curate the many existing opportunities the college or university has to offer in other areas to help students bring those experiences into the understanding of their GCSP journeys.