The myriad of challenges associated with developing petroleum reserves in the Arctic and in ultra-deepwater regions will require both new technologies and novel implementations of existing technologies to lower costs and to address environmental conditions unique to many frontier areas.

As Texas A&M’s Institute for Innovation and Design in Engineering (IIDE) turns 20 years old, it is important to reflect on the value of providing ready-made engineers to an industry that survives by its ability to innovate.

The big challenge of the 21st century is more than simply protecting our environment; it’s about thriving in a future that is environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable.

Very little hiring was done in the 1990s when oil prices were low, so people in their 30s are scarce in the industry. Companies need to protect their investment.

It takes an honest man, or a completely remorseless idiot, to admit, as did Alan Greenspan in late October, that there was a flaw in his economic theory that drove the US economy for a couple of decades, a flaw that has placed it and the global economy on the slippery slope to depression.

The US economy is in shambles. Recent government bail-outs of shaky investment banking, brokerage, and insurance companies, most with dramatic exposure to huge volumes of bad mortgage debt, have raised the national debt exponentially, to a bit more than $10 trillion.