The presentation of the Report was well received, with discussion including reference to the vital role of engineering in social and economic development, global issues of poverty reduction, sustainable development and other UN Millennium Development Goals and issues facing engineering.

UNESCO: Basic Sciences

And sell it did, so much so that it moved the titans of tech to innovate the space, with Google enlisting ASUS' engineering for its popular and affordable Nexus 7 reference tab (named for its relatively diminutive size) and even Apple, which once infamously disavowed the smaller format altogether, releasing the 7.9-inch iPad mini.

ENGADGET: 's CES 2013 Preview: Tablets

When I gave a TEDGlobal talk on femto photography in June, I began with a reference to Doc Edgerton, a very popular MIT professor of electrical engineering who, in 1964, wowed the world with an image of a bullet in midair, having just passed through an apple.

CNN: A camera that can see around corners