At the University of South Florida, our goal is to provide quality education to create a generation of future students ready to face the great challenges of our society. At the College of Engineering, we are aiming to move beyond the traditional way of learning and prepare students to solve these challenges by shifting our focus to a more practical, hands-on education incorporating a global perspective, entrepreneurship, and innovation into our program. Some of these challenges have been identified by the National Academy of Engineering as the Grand Challenges of the 21st century.   

We have exceptional research in almost all of the 14 grand challenge areas, such as renewable energy, clean water and nitrogen cycle modulation, health informatics, urban infrastructure, and augmented reality. Tampa Bay has flourishing eco-systems in medical device companies and USF College of Engineering now holds the Department of Medical Engineering (only three of this kind exists in the nation). Apart from this, the College is a leading active member of a University-wide Cyber-security center and is launching a Bachelor’s degree in Cyber-Security from the department of Computer Science and Engineering.  We are significantly vested in these grand challenge research areas and, thus, well-suited to provide the NAE Grand Challenge Scholars a great curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular research experience. Besides extensive research, our vision embraces community engagement, global awareness, innovation, and entrepreneurship, which are all embedded in this program.

We intend to engage and enhance the existing framework of Engineers Without Borders, USF Office of Community Engagement and Partnerships, and USF World. Additionally, Peace Corps has announced that the University of South Florida ranked No. 18 among large schools on the agency's 2017 Top Volunteer-Producing Colleges and Universities list. 
Integrating GCSP will have great benefits to the College and its students. Focusing on hands-on education with a global approach students will acquire greater knowledge and confidence that will widely reflect in their work. Through these elements, they will gain knowledge and experience to apply their skills to real life problems and gain leverage entering an increasingly competitive workforce.