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01.11

A Decade in Review: 2001-2010

The 10-year period beginning in 2001 and ending in 2010 was marked by a string of colossal events that significantly changed our lives and continue to shape our future. From the televised tragedy of 9/11, to the election of America’s first African-American President, numerous massive natural disasters, a global financial collapse, and the exponential growth of new electronic communication and information technologies — it was a remarkable ten years replete with highs and lows. The human spirit, coupled with our unlimited intelligence, provides us with the ability to overcome what initially seem to be insurmountable obstacles and celebrate our achievements. 

For us ‘baby-boomers,” technologies of the future published in magazines such as Popular Science and Popular Mechanics decades ago and later depicted in movies such as “Star Trek” or “2001: A Space Odyssey” are now commonplace.  History shows that we advance. History proves that we learn from our predecessors. History proves that we can all learn from our mistakes.

One thing is clear, as witnessed during the past ten years, change is occurring at an accelerating pace. The innovation cycle is shortening. Jobs disappear and new exciting jobs emerge. To be successful in today’s world, it is necessary for us all to constantly scan the environment, looking for and embracing new opportunities as they emerge. Information has never been so easy to access by all.

In 2011, the world’s population is forecast to reach 7 Billion  [Bryan Walsh, “Population: Is the World Ready for 7 Billion People?” Time Magazine's Ecocentric Blog,  30 December 2010].  Will our planet be able to support this many people in an equitable manner or are we on the path to self-destruction? There is cause for optimism as a new generation assumes leadership from the “baby boomers” and implements their ideas to build a better world.

This report highlighting events over the past eleven years (a review of 2000 is also included to provide additional context) is not intended to be comprehensive, but simply reviews some of the world events and technological developments that have shaped our lives. Engineers played a leading role in many of these developments. The information was compiled from reports published in: IEEE Spectrum, USA Today, Wikipedia, BBC World News, The Globe and Mail, Time Magazine, CNN, and The Futurist.

For a look at the outlook in eight areas of significant importance to the U.S. endeavor, check out George McClure’s article, "Outlook for 2011" in this issue of Today’s Engineer.

2000

We began the final year of the 20th century on 1 January 2000 worried about the millennium bug.  This was thought to be a problem for both digital and non-digital devices resulting from the practice of abbreviating the four-digit year to two digits. Fears for world-wide computer failures never materialized and some questioned whether this was the result of computer programmers scrambling to update systems or whether the significance of the problem had been overstated.

On 10 January 2000, Steve Case, chairman and CEO of America Online, and Time Warner's chair and CEO, Gerald Levin, announce that AOL would acquire Time-Warner. In December, the Federal Trade Commission unanimously approved the merger.

Air France Concorde Flight 4590 crashed on 25 July 2000, shortly after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle airport, killing all 109 people aboard and four on the ground. The supersonic Concord, of which 20 were built, was retired from service with a final flight on 24 October 2003, after 27 years of service.

Several weeks after the November Presidential election, George W. Bush claimed the U.S. presidency over Al Gore, a day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Florida Supreme Court's decision requiring a statewide recount was unconstitutional. One of the major issues was the infamous "hanging chads," resulting from the paper based punch card voting machines. This resulted in initiatives to implement electronic voting in future elections. Bush was sworn in as President on 20 January 2001.

Evolutionary computing, personal locator services, digital cinema, global satellite navigation, application service providers, the use of laser technology in the production of printed circuit boards, virtual surgery, mobility handhelds accessing the internet, liquid crystal displays, gene sequencing, superconducting integrated circuits, intelligent highways and nuclear safekeeping were topics of feature articles of interest to the engineer in IEEE Spectrum during the year 2000.

2001

On 15 January 2001, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger launched Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia with the entries being written by volunteers. Today, this web-based tool has more than 3 million articles.

Tragically, two hijacked jet airliners exploded on impact with the World Trade Center towers in New York on September 11, 2001. A third jet struck the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a fourth was brought down by passengers, crashing into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nineteen al-Qaeda hijackers commandeered four jets, killing 2,976 people. President Bush declared a war on terror in response to the attacks. The attacks left the nation stunned, mourning and looking for answers. Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida became household names. Airline travel globally was suspended until new screening methods for embarking passengers could be implemented. People around the world looked for sources of inspiration and healing. Online memorials and dedications to the victims became places of remembrance.

Operation Enduring Freedom began on 7 October 2001, just weeks after the attacks of Sept. 11. This was the name used by the U.S. Government for the war in Afghanistan, and other military actions under the umbrella of the global war on terror. Many other countries joined the United States in the effort to counter terrorism.  Later, in 2003, the war in Iraq officially started.

On 23 October 2001, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the Mac-compatible classic iPod, a portable music device that initially held digital media files on an internal hard drive. The iPod branding has grown into other products. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded an Oscar to three computer scientists — Pixar’s Loren Carpenter, Rob Cook and Ed Catmull — whose video software was used in many new movies.

Living in a networked world, aging aircraft, digital TV, hybrid vehicles, automobile digital radio services, mining asteroids, in-flight internet, automobile collision avoidance technology, biosensors and biological warfare, a second look at nuclear power, and China in space were topics of feature articles of interest to engineers in IEEE Spectrum during the year 2001.

2002

During 2002, many of the headlines could be traced to the horrific terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. in September 2001. On 10 January  2002, Guantanamo prison opened to hold detainees captured in Afghanistan, and the economy continued to experience after-effects from 9/11. 

Scientists, politicians and the public continued exploring climate change. Two astronauts exited the Columbia space shuttle in March and modified the Hubble Space Telescope in a major re-engineering upgrade. When completed, the telescope boasted a ten-fold increase in optical capacity. 

The public's imagination was captured with the remote possibility that the icy planet Mars may have once been hospitable to life, and a skull found in the African desert, estimated to be about 7 million years old, challenged long-held beliefs about human evolution. 

A significant transformation this year occurred in voting where a record number of counties used electronic voting machines during November's elections. This transformation was prompted by the voting difficulties in Florida during the last presidential election.

Modular robots, tunable lasers, high-tech simulations in training troops, digitized hospitals, the future of microprocessors, innovative medical monitors, gallium nitride transistors, recycling of e-waste, telecom deregulation, digital hubs, tissue engineering, instant messaging, and wind farms were topics of feature articles of interest to engineers in IEEE Spectrum during the year 2002.

2003

Tragically on 1 February 2003, the space shuttle Columbia, a vessel which inaugurated the space shuttle program in 1981 and flew 27 missions, disintegrated during re-entry into the atmosphere over Texas, killing all seven astronauts aboard. It was believed that the shuttle lost its protective insulation during launch.

On 19 March 2003, President George Bush announced that the U.S. war against Iraq had begun. Baghdad, as the Iraqi capital, comes under heavy U.S. led bombardment. This massive assault was meant to paralyze the Iraqi government as quickly as possible. Searches for its leader Saddam Hussein, and the search for weapons of mass destruction began. Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was captured on 14 December 2003 when he was discovered in a tiny bunker outside his hometown of Tikrit.

Techno-cool automobiles, digitizing of the power amplifier, new memory technologies, intelligence and technology, digital entertainment copyright protection, light emitting diodes, smart buildings, home networking, wearable technology, and microwave weaponry were topics of feature articles of interest to Engineers in IEEE Spectrum during the year 2003.

2004

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, delivered the keynote address during the Facebook developer conference on 4 February 2003 in San Francisco. Zuckerberg and co-founders Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin, launched Facebook from their Harvard dorm room. The social networking website was opened to the public in 2006 and today has more than 500 million members worldwide.

Two-term president and former governor of California Ronald Reagan died at the age of 93 on 5 June 2004. His way of translating complicated issues into a language ordinary people could understand earned him the title of "The Great Communicator."

Indonesian residents were caught by surprise when a tsunami struck low-lying areas on 26 December 2004. Resulting from a magnitude 9.1 earthquake in the Indian Ocean, the tsunami left nearly 230,000 people dead or missing in South Asia. People worldwide wanted to know why these natural disasters happen and how they can better be predicted, saving lives.

The reshaping of business through web services, automotive technology, three-dimensional whole body scanning technology, displacement of the cathode ray tube by new technologies, surveillance technology and privacy, the power grid, computer transformation of astronomy, drug delivery by technology, wireless technology in remote health-care monitoring were topics of feature articles of interest to engineers in IEEE Spectrum during the year 2004.

2005

After collapsing in 1990 and existing in a vegetative state, Terri Schiavo was kept alive by means of a feeding tube. Schiavo's husband received 2005 court permission to remove the tube following years of court battles with Terri's parents who believed that their daughter was conscious. The issue of taking her off life support became the focus of a nationwide debate. Schiavo died two weeks later on 31 March 2005 after her feeding tube was removed.

At the age of 84, Pope John Paul II died peacefully at the Vatican on 2 April 2005. His body was placed in St. Peter's Basilica for public viewing and later burial in a grotto below the Basilica. The first Polish pontiff visited 129 countries during his nearly 27 years as Pope, and is credited with having a significant role in ending communist rule in Europe.

A 19-second video shot at the San Diego Zoo featured Jawed Karim, one of three co-founders of YouTube, was the first video uploaded to the video-sharing website on 23 April 2005. In July, Lance Armstrong completed an unprecedented seventh consecutive win in during the 92^nd Tour de France, cycling's premier event.

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history. 1,836 people lost their lives in the hurricane and in the subsequent floods resulting from a levee system that failed. Property damage was estimated at $81 billion. In the wake of the catastrophe, many of the city's diplaced residents moved into the New Orleans Super Dome. The storm system also inflicted heavy damage along much of the Gulf Coast, from Florida to Texas.

Replacement body organs, space weaponry, nanomechanical memories, 3-D displays, personal fabrication systems, online games, elevators to space, and earthquake prediction were topics of feature articles of interest to engineers in IEEE Spectrum during the year 2005.

2006

Created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched in July 2006, Twitter has achieved popularity world-wide.  As CEO, Dorsey saw the startup through two rounds of funding by the venture capitalists that backed the company.

Over the last few decades, powerful new ground and space-based observatories have completely changed previous understanding of the outer Solar System.  On 24 August 2006, the International Astronomical Union redefined what it means to be a planet within the Solar System. This definition excluded Pluto as a planet but added it as a member of the new category: dwarf planet.  Pluto was first discovered in 1930 by Clyde W. Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.

In a story seemingly straight from the pages of a spy novel, Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent, fled to the United Kingdom where he hurled accusations at the Kremlin. On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalized. He died three weeks later, becoming the first confirmed victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome.

Former president Gerald Ford died on 26 December 2006. He was appointed vice-president after Spiro Agnew resigned, and assumed the Presidency when President Nixon resigned in August 1974. He is the only President of the United States who was never elected President or Vice-President. Ford also served as House minority leader.

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's was executed on 30 December 2006 by hanging after his conviction a month earlier.

Re-engineering Iraq, the transistor laser, technology in the treatment of depression, noise in the oceans, counterfeit electronics, amphibious robots, identity theft, innovative displays, prediction of hurricanes, technology and terrorism, and remote-controlled surgical robots were topics of feature articles of interest to engineers in IEEE Spectrum during the year 2006.

2007

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the Apple iPhone at the MacWorld Conference in San Francisco on 9 January 2007, and announced it would go on sale in late June. The iPhone is a combination widescreen iPod, cell phone and pocket internet device.

Gunman Seung Hui Cho, a senior, killed 27 students and five faculty members on 16 April 2007 before killing himself in the rampage at Norris Hall at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.  This was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

An eight-lane Interstate bridge over the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis collapsed killing 13 people and injuring 145 on 2 August 2007. The 40-year-old structure was under repair when the bridge buckled, plunging vehicles into the water. Investigations revealed that undersized gusset plates were critical factors in the collapse.

In November, thousands of Writers Guild of America members and others strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in Los Angeles. At issue in the 14-week strike was payment for the writers' work in new media, primarily downloads of movies and TV shows over the Internet.

Nuclear waste, RFID, climate control, megacities, biometrics, lithium-ion automobile batteries, crash test dummies, transistor re-design, open-source warfare, and the Taser were topics of feature articles of interest to engineers in IEEE Spectrum during the year 2007.

2008

On 19 February 2008, Cuban President Fidel Castro announced that he was retiring as the country's head of state, 49 years after seizing power in an armed revolution.  Leadership of Cuba was handed over to his brother Raul.

90,000 people were killed and 5 million more were left homeless by the 7.9 earthquake that struck Sichuan province, China on 12 May 2008.

In athletics, Michael Phelps breaks world records at the Beijing Olympics, winning eight gold medals.

Financial giant Lehman Brothers' collapsed, and on 15 September 2008, the firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following the massive exodus of most of its clients, drastic losses in its stock, and devaluation of its assets by credit rating agencies. The filing marked the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. On 29 September 2008, the Dow plummeted 778 points, about 7%, after the U.S. House of Representatives rejected the government's $700 million bank bailout plan. Bernard Madoff was arrested 11 December 2008 and accused of orchestrating a $50 billion Ponzi scheme that victimized charities, celebrities, retirement funds and average investors. He pleaded guilty in March 2009 and is serving a 150-year prison term.

In the presidential election of 4 November 2008, Senator Barack Obama celebrated an election night victory becoming the nation's first African-American president, having previously served in the Illinois Senate and U.S. Senate.

Australia’s transcontinental solar car race, robotic fliess, wind power in the Galapagos, electronics obsolescence, new economies of semiconductor manufacturing, artificial consciousness, computer animation and the movies, thin-film solar cells, countering IEDs, renewable energy and the military, weapons acquisitions, automation of the defibrillator, and the memristor were topics of feature articles of interest to engineers in IEEE Spectrum during the year 2008.

2009

A US Airways Airbus A320 jetliner ditched in the frigid waters of the Hudson River in New York City on 15 January 2009. The pilot, Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, was considered a hero for safely guiding the powerless jet into the river after a flock of birds knocked out both its engines. All 155 passengers and crew survived.

During the year, fears of an H1N1 influenza pandemic gripped the nation.  H1N1 vaccine was distributed. By year's end, the fears of a national pandemic eased. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that about 1 American in 6 had been infected, much fewer than what had been predicted.

On 13 July 2009, Sonia Sotomayor became the first Hispanic justice and only the third female member in the 220-year history of the U.S. Supreme Court. Sen. Edward Kennedy, 77, died at his home on Cape Cod after a year-long struggle with brain cancer on 27 August 2009. Kennedy was buried in Arlington National Cemetery near his brothers, John and Robert.

Antennas for the new airwaves, aging nuclear weapons, legged robots, the universal handset, groundbreaking microchips, innovative medical imaging transducers, human exploration of Mars, solid-state laser weapons, “drooping” LEDs, error detecting and correction microprocessors, engineers and water,  infoglut, and micro-machine drug delivery were topics of feature articles of interest to engineers in IEEE Spectrum during the year 2009.

2010

A magnitude-7.0 earthquake wreaks havoc on one of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nations — Haiti — on 12 January 2010. More than 220,000 people were killed. The quake destroyed 60% of government infrastructure and left more than 180,000 homes uninhabitable.

Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupts on 21 March 2010, spewing a cloud of ash over Europe. Flights are disrupted for several weeks, resulting in chaos for international air travel and stranding thousands of passengers globally.

Torrential monsoon rain leads to catastrophic flooding in Pakistan in July, killing at least 1,600 people and leaving 4 million homeless. Hygienic conditions raised the threat of widespread infections and even more deaths.

U.S. President Barack Obama signs the biggest expansion of federal health care in more than four decades on 23 March 2010. The $940 billion plan is projected to extend insurance coverage to roughly 32 million additional Americans.

On 20 April 2010, an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon, an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, kills 11 workers and the worst oil spill in U.S. history begins. 4.9 million barrels of crude oil are estimated to have spilled into the Gulf before BP officials declared the leak sealed in September. Billions of dollars were spent to clean up the spill, and many local industries were adversely affected.

In July, website WikiLeaks released 75,000 documents relating to the United States and the war in Afghanistan. These firsthand accounts are the U.S. military's own raw data on the war. Despite efforts to prevent publication, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would continue to make news, releasing the Iraq War Logs in October and thousands of diplomatic cables in November.

On 31 August 2010, President Obama addresses the country from the Oval Office and declares that "the American combat mission in Iraq has ended." He pledges that America will continue supporting Iraq's government while it refocuses its energies on the U.S. economy and the war in Afghanistan.

After being trapped underground for nearly 70 days, 33 men are safely rescued in October from a collapsed copper mine in the Atacama region of northern Chile. The spirit and perseverance of the miners inspired people around the world.  GPS, drilling, and recovery technologies played a significant role in their successful rescue.

A Final Word

IEEE members have played an important role in the development of innovative technologies and processes for many years. IEEE is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity and its publications disseminate accurate information on technology advances. One of the benefits of membership include subscription access to IEEE Xplore that delivers to your computer full text access to the world's highest quality technical literature in engineering and technology.

Terrance Malkinson is a communications specialist, business analyst and futurist. He is Vice-Chair of the IEEE-USA Communications Committee, an international correspondent for IEEE-USA Today's Engineer , editor-in-chief of IEEE-USA Today's Engineer Digest, associate editor for IEEE Canadian Review, and a member of the editorial advisory board of IEEE The Institute.  He was an elected Senator of the University of Calgary and an elected Governor of the IEEE Engineering Management Society as well as an elected Administrative Committee member of the IEEE Professional Communication Society. He has been the editor of several IEEE conference proceedings, and past editor of IEEE Engineering Management. He is the author of more than 400 publications, and is an accomplished triathlete. His career path includes being an accomplished technical supervisor and medical researcher at the University of Calgary a business proposal manager for the General Electric Company, an associate for Sears Canada Inc. and research administrator with the School of Health and Public Safety/Applied Research and Innovation Services at SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary Canada.

The author is grateful to the professional support of the Haskayne School of Business Library at the University of Calgary. He can be reached at todaysengineer@ieee.org.