User control devices allow students and faculty to wander through the columns of the Parthenon, work on a tractor design simultaneously with colleagues across the world, or construct and observe a multi-dimensional dataset. But as old boundaries disappear, new limitations evolve. Today s engineer works with an awareness that thousands of strands connect the global web of a shrinking planet. The ripples of technological triumphs and defeats are felt worldwide. Fuels are limited.
Food is scarce.
ISU engineering education and research are responding in ways that cross disciplines. Building materials are made from animal wastes, human vacci-nations are produced from the proteins found in genetically altered grain. If yesterday s student measured the heat generated from the resident nuclear plant, today s student measures the heat produced from switchgrass and corn. Biodiesel, a word unknown in Ian s father s day, may be tomorrow s fuel solution. Iowa State is a world leader in researching this renewable, nontoxic, and biodegradable fuel, which is produced from soybean oil and animal fats.