Engineering Change Lab-USA (ECL-USA) is a catalyst for change within the engineering community, helping it reach its highest potential on behalf of society
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Summit Wrap-Up, Part 3

In 1965 Alvin Toffler coined the term “Future Shock” to describe the shattering stress and disorientation induced in individuals, organizations, and communities by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time. Our observation, leading into the fall Engineering Change Lab – USA (ECL) summit, is that 2025 has been a year of accelerating, disruptive change leaving people and institutions unmoored, at risk, and clearly suffering from Future Shock “Squared”.

Seventy-five years ago, the behavioral scientist Kurt Lewin articulated a simple, but powerful theory of change for social systems. He theorized that to change a social system you must go through three stages: Unfreeze, Change, Refreeze. Unfreezing involves preparing people for the transition by breaking down existing mindsets and behaviors that normally act as barriers to change (think bootcamp experiences in the military). The change stage introduces new processes, mindsets, and behaviors. Finally, during refreezing the system stabilizes and the change is embedded into the culture of the social system.

The Future Shock of 2025, brought about by governmental actions and the explosive growth of AI, represents an unfreezing moment for the engineering community. New possibilities as well as desired changes that have been inhibited by the frozen conditions and the inertia of the existing social system may now be possible — provided we act strategically and with urgency before the situation freezes once again.

Clearly, this is a time for imagining a new vision, transcending goals, and robust strategies that could allow the engineering community to take a leadership role in society and become, once again, the fundamental driver of economic growth and prosperity for the country.

The latest ECL summit, convened in Austin, Texas in November 2025 gathered a group of engineering leaders, students, and associated stakeholders to engage in this type of strategic thinking effort on behalf of the engineering community. The primary objectives of this summit were to demonstrate both the potential value of and urgent need for engaging in this type of strategy work across the engineering community at this critical juncture in time.

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Summit Wrap-Up, Part 2

For this summit, we asked six thought leaders to play the role of “evocateur,” to help call forth and breathe life into our collective imagining of a future vision, goals, and strategies for the engineering community. A summary of those evocations as well as perspectives shared by the five members of our student panel are provided below.

Ed Finn, Director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University

Ed Finn evoked the power of storytelling, image-based worldbuilding, and speculative fiction to inspire collective imagination. Drawing on a recent article, “Step Into the Free and Infinite Laboratory of the Mind,” (https://issues.org/science-fiction-policy-tool-finn/), Finn observed that collaborative narratives, such as good science fiction, can play a primary role in helping science and society reach beyond current configurations toward positive transformational futures.

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Summit Wrap-Up, Part 1

Imagine waking up on a Spring morning in 2046. Over the last two decades, the U.S. has experienced a sustained period of technological progress, rapid economic growth, social prosperity, and environmental stewardship.

Central to the achievement of this abundant future has been the engineering community. Through their commitments, actions, and achievements the engineering community has emerged as the pre-eminent driver of economic growth and abundance in the 21^st Century.

Looking back to 2025, the disruptive change and “future shock” experienced across the country due to governmental actions and the explosive growth of AI that year constituted, in the words of social scientist Kurt Lewin, an “unfreezing” moment. Previously frozen systems, policies, ways of doing things, and attitudes were suddenly tractable and new possibilities for positive futures emerged.

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