In order for the United States to continue to compete in the global marketplace, we must forge a critical mass of knowledge, skills, and infrastructure. In essence, NSF's strategic goals reflect this philosophy. We continually help break new ground through the research and education we support, but we can't let the knowledge generated lie fallow. NSF is as much about preparing a world-class workforce as it is about discovery. That's a primary benefit from our support of research and education.
Tools open new vistas and frontiers for learning and discovery for everyone.
It is our job to keep all fields of science and engineering focused on the furthest frontier, to recognize and nurture emerging fields, to support the work of those with the most insightful reach, and to prepare coming generations of scientific and engineering talent. A job to which ERCs are well-suited. ERCs will continue to meet the challenge of educating engineers for the 21 st century by shaping the future of engineering with new capabilities. Let's discuss a few. This new technology takes us three orders of magnitude beyond prevailing computing capabilities.