TMCnet News
XPRIZE Announces Teams Designing Impact Proposals for Future XPRIZE Competitions to Be Unveiled at 2017 Visioneers SummitXPRIZE, the global leader in incentivized prize competitions, today announced that six international teams have been selected to submit their proposals for the next generation of potential XPRIZE competitions, which will be presented at the foundation's 2017 Visioneers Summit in October. These teams are comprised of XPRIZE-identified 'Bold Innovators' -- prominent scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and other change agents who are passionate about creating impact across several Grand Challenges facing the world today. At this year's Visioneers Summit, teams will present to more than 250 high-profile CEOs, technology innovators, creative artists, political leaders, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists, who will evaluate, critique, and ultimately determine which team's proposal might be selected as the next global XPRIZE competition. "The Visioneers process is a key part of XPRIZE's broader multiphase approach and strategy to drive and scale impact across a variety of domains," said Marcus Shingles, CEO of XPRIZE. "Our Visioneers model leverages XPRIZE's unique innovation ecosystem and engages our prominent network into the review, design, and selection of the competitions that we launch." The following six teams are developing proposals for this year's Visioneers Summit: The Abundant Clean Energy (News - Alert) Team, sponsored by Beyond Carbon Energy, will tackle the need for abundant, clean energy by incentivizing the creation and distribution of new energy technologies. The team is led by Jessica Matthews, a self-taught mechanical engineer and inventor. Matthews is a dual citizen of Nigeria and the U.S., has degrees in psychology and economics from Harvard University, and a master's degree in business administration from Harvard Business School. She holds 12 patents, including for the SOCCKET ball, an energy-generating soccer ball that provides off-grid power for communities in the developing world. Among her accolades are selection as one of Fortune's Most Promising Women Entrepreneurs, inclusion in Forbes' 30 Under 30 list and Inc.'s 30 Under 30 list, and recognition as Harvard Scientist of the Year. The Zero Waste Mining Team, sponsored by the Chilean Mining Consortium, will tackle the Grand Challenge of industrial mining waste that results in negative global health and environmental effects. Led by Carl Brackpool, who serves on the research faculty at the Colorado School of Mines, the team's Impact Proposal will aim to inspire solutions that safely and cleanly extract critical metals, minerals, and rare earth elements without contaminating water supplies and without genrating waste, igniting the path to a zero-industrial waste world. Brackpool has been a Walt Disney (News - Alert) Imagineer, and has held leadership roles at telecom and wireless innovation companies in Seattle and Silicon Valley. He guest lectures on communications technologies and participated on the inaugural Responsible Mine Closure Committee. In 2016, Brackpool testified before a U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources hearing on mining and technology in the 21st century. The Alzheimer's Disease Team, sponsored by Alzheimer's Brain Trust, seeks to tackle the Grand Challenge of Alzheimer's disease. The team's Impact Proposal will incentivize ingenuity across a wide array of disciplines and sectors and leverage exponential technologies that will make Alzheimer's disease a thing of the past. The team is led by Philip Edgcumbe, a PhD student in biomedical engineering at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in the Engineers in Scrubs research training program, where he is concurrently earning his Doctor of Medicine. He is a graduate of Singularity University's Global Solutions Program, has significant research experience at the Brain Research Center at UBC, and earned a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering Physics. The Clean Air Team, sponsored by Green China, seeks to tackle the global Grand Challenge of poor air quality. The team will develop an Impact Proposal designed to empower and enable people everywhere to have clean air, so they are able to live full lives, realize their full potential, and-finally-take a deep breath. The team is led by Christine Harada, former Federal Chief Sustainability Officer for the Obama Administration. Harada has over 20 years of experience successfully leading government and management consulting organizations. She holds a master's degree in business administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and a bachelor's degree and master's degree in aeronautics/astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford, respectively. The Cybersecurity Team, sponsored by the National Research Foundation of Singapore, will tackle the Grand Challenge of cybersecurity in our increasingly interconnected world. The team's Impact Proposal seeks to leverage emerging technologies to create a world in which citizens and institutions have increased trust in the safety and security of the interconnected systems we rely on every day. The team is led by Or Suesskind, an innovation consultant for Deloitte (News - Alert) Israel and a senior cyber-strategy consultant for the Israeli Prime Minister's office. As an officer in the Israeli Intelligence Corps, Suesskind was the commander of a division of 65 cyber-analysts and then served as a head of the cyber project management team for the Israeli Defense Forces. The Democracy ("True Voice") Team seeks to tackle the Grand Challenge of revitalizing democracies globally. The team is developing a strategy to address a number of issues that threaten any functioning democracy, including onerous voter identification processes, fake news, the influence of money in the election process, corruption in government, and gerrymandering. The team's Impact Proposal will incentivize solutions that ensure the right of every eligible citizen to vote and to trust and verify that their vote has been counted and their voice has been heard. The team is led by Joe Trippi, the founder and president of Trippi & Associates, with more than 35 years of experience in political innovation. He was heralded on the cover of The New Republic as the man who "reinvented campaigning," and in 2004, his innovative use of online technology on Howard Dean's presidential campaign created the largest grassroots movement in presidential politics up to that time and became a model for movement politics around the globe. Trippi is the author of The Revolution (News - Alert) Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything. "We are excited by the caliber of the Bold Innovators leading each of the six teams, and we look forward to evaluating how their Impact Proposals can be a catalyst for XPRIZE's mission," said Jennifer Bravo, senior director of Visioneers at XPRIZE. For more information, visit http://www.xprize.org/visioneers. About XPRIZE XPRIZE, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is the global leader in designing and implementing innovative competition models to solve the world's grandest challenges. XPRIZE utilizes a unique combination of gamification, crowd-sourcing, incentive prize theory, and exponential technologies as a formula to make 10x (vs. 10%) impact in the grand challenge domains facing our world. XPRIZE's philosophy is that-under the right circumstances- igniting rapid experimentation from a variety of diverse lenses is the most efficient and effective method to driving exponential impact and solutions to grand challenges. Active competitions include the $30M Google Lunar XPRIZE, the $20M NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, the $15M Global Learning XPRIZE, the $7M Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, the $7M Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE, the $5M IBM (News - Alert) Watson AI XPRIZE, the $1.75M Water Abundance XPRIZE and the $1M Anu and Naveen Women's Safety XPRIZE. For more information, visit http://www.xprize.org/. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170524005677/en/ |
