McCormick Engineers Face the Great Intersection

EVANSTON, Ill. --- The McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University unveiled a new strategic vision, titled “The Great Intersection,” March 6. (Watch video below.)

“The great intersection is the intersection of global challenges and the knowledge required to solve them,” said Julio M. Ottino, dean of McCormick. “This vision provides a framework for communicating both the progress our school has made and where we are going.”

McCormick has identified five strategic priorities for the future: energy and environment, health and wellness, systems, materials and creating leaders. The first four areas emphasize two global challenges and two areas of core knowledge.

The last area is the core of the framework: McCormick’s commitment to creating leaders who thrive at the great intersection. Through this vision, McCormick strives to educate engineers who have superior technical abilities combined with divergent, creative-thinking skills: whole-brain entrepreneurs, designers and communicators.

“These students will become leaders who thrive at the great intersection, whether in industry, academia, at the frontiers of research or beyond,” Ottino said. “We hope the great intersection will help drive the progress of McCormick’s education and research in the coming years.”