Perspectives on Innovation

Giving grades is often cited as the biggest downside of teaching.  In too many cases, it reduces the importance on the knowledge imparted in favor of a contest to see who can repeat the teacher’s words most precisely.

Professor Cathy Davidson of Duke University thinks she’s found a solution:  handing the power over to her students.  Per her blog: “this year, when I teach ‘This Is Your Brain on the Internet,’ I’m trying out a new point system. Do all the work, you get an A. Don’t need an A? Don’t have time to do all the work? No problem. You can aim for and earn a B. There will be a chart. You do the assignment satisfactorily, you get the points. Add up the points, there’s your grade. Clearcut. No guesswork. No second-guessing ‘what the prof wants.’ Clearcut. Student is responsible.”

If the grading students determine that an assignment hasn’t been completed satisfactorily, the student has a chance to resubmit the assignment, for another chance at the points.  If all assignments are deemed satisfactory, the student gets 100 points, for an A in the class.

According to Davidson, every study on peer review among students shows that students perform at a higher level, and with more care, when they know they are being evaluated by their peers than when they know only the teacher and the TA will be grading.

Comments to Davidson’s proposal are mostly supportive, though one raises an example that illustrates a downside – gaming the system.  A professor from Buffalo tried this form of grading and found that 2 groups emerged, one composed of fraternity brothers, the other a group that had self-formed within the class.  These groups each determined that they would vote each other up and the other group down – regardless of the quality of work.  When the teacher intervened, she got complaints of “you set the rules, you can’t change them now.”  To be fair, she was grading on a curve, which she admits may have been a mistake.

What do you think?  Would you trust your peers to grade you fairly?  Can this be done, as long as safeguards are put in place to prevent things from getting personal?

To read more on this story, check out this article in Inside Higher Ed.

Friends of InnoCentive:

Access to clean, affordable water is something that the developed world often takes for granted. Yet, over half of the world’s population is at risk for water shortages, with far-reaching effects. Lack of adequate clean water has serious health implications, including the prevalence of water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A and E, and diarrhea. Globally, diarrhea is the leading cause of illness and death and 88% of those deaths are due to inadequate sanitation and availability of clean water. Water shortages also foment civil unrest and often lead to violence and regional conflicts, as we have seen in Darfur, Somalia, Chad, Nigeria and Sri Lanka, among others. Lack of water perpetuates poverty, increases the risk of political instability, and affects global prosperity.

The depth and pervasiveness of this problem, spread over some 100 countries, constitutes a major global crisis. And as if this problem isn’t dire enough already, continued climate change, population growth and increased global economic growth will deepen the crisis. The problem is as complex as it is widespread. Industrial pollution, poor management of rivers and dams, policies for conservation, water distribution and pricing, agricultural practices, and idiosyncrasies of local conditions all make this a complicated problem to address.

We are seeking to identify “water issues” currently affecting people in developing countries where limited funding can be expected to create a maximum benefit for the population affected. We are not interested in “water problems” which require long term, high cost solutions but in problems where a cost efficient solution can be realized quickly with wide ranging impact. Problems which allow for smaller incremental changes or improvements are believed to be more actionable.

This Challenge does include financial awards for the best ideas, but it is my belief that the greatest reward is knowing you could have a major impact on the developing world.

Please get involved with this Challenge, either by submitting your own ideas or forwarding this Challenge to anyone/everyone that may be able to make a difference.

Best regards,
Dwayne Spradlin
CEO InnoCentive

BonnieJean Butler is the newest member of our Client Services team, and is managing the Water Problems Affecting People in Developing Countries Challenge.  BonnieJean spent time in India and offers a unique perspective on the impact of this Challenge.

You and I can help save a life. Yes, you and I. And it’s easier than you think.

During my world-wide travels, I saw hard-working moms walk for miles in the hottest, most humid weather you can imagine. The destination? The closest stream. Why? To fill a bowl of water and walk back those very same miles to bring the water to their babies.

Her goal seems like a simple one, but these moms know the water has something in it that may make their children sick and possibly die. They’ve seen before; so many other babies have already died. Maybe this time it will be different. Maybe this stream is cleaner. Maybe my baby is stronger than the others. Maybe not.  So why do it? Simply, their babies will die quicker without water. What a horrible choice.

In some countries, more than 20% of children die before they reach 5 years old and high bacteria content in water is a major contributor. It’s hard to believe or even imagine if you haven’t seen it. People world-wide are dying because of bacteria-filled water.

We wonder, “can’t they just fix it”? Great question! Here’s your chance to help, and it’s easy! Not like “lose 50 lbs in 3 weeks” easy, but really and truly easy. We are seeking to identify these water related issues and you can help identify and solve them. Submit your own ideas or forward this Challenge to your family, friends, or strangers; whatever it takes.

You don’t have to irrigate the Sahara. Smaller incremental changes or improvements are usually more actionable. Get creative with solutions that use limited funding, but create a big benefit for a population. Think about cost efficient solutions can be deployed quickly and have a wide ranging impact.

Please get involved with this Challenge. You really can make a difference and maybe even save the life of a child. So think about it… And pass it on.

BonnieJean

Paradigm recently posted a $100,000 Challenge seeking ways of storing and analyzing data in 3D fault networks.  This Challenge is unique in its award amount and in the amount of data that Paradigm has shared with Solvers.  We asked Duane Dopkin, senior vice president of technology at Paradigm, to talk to us a bit about the Challenge and what they are hoping to achieve with the solution.

Hi Duane – thanks for agreeing to talk to us today.  As background for our Solvers, can you tell us a bit about the current state of oil and gas exploration?

Hi – sure.  In order to sustain growth and fulfill hydrocarbon demand, oil and gas companies must aggressively replace depleted hydrocarbon reserves and offset production decline in mature fields. Replacement of hydrocarbon reserves has meant shifts in exploration to frontier areas (e.g. deep waters like the Gulf of Mexico, Arctic, etc.) or investigation of unconventional sources of hydrocarbons (e.g. heavy oil, tight gas, shale oil, coal bed methane).  Both of these shifts have required oil companies to become much more technically savvy.

Your Challenge is seeking a method of analyzing data related to faults in the earth’s crust. Can you tell us how this information will be used?

Subsurface faults and fractures can serve as flow conduits for hydrocarbons or conversely as permeability traps that compartmentalize reservoir hydrocarbons. Although many fractures and small scale faults cannot be detected in subsurface seismic images, larger faults and regional faults help geoscientists understand the deformation history of geologic basins which, in turn, can reveal information about hydrocarbon accumulation and hydrocarbon migration pathways. Faults and fractures can also compartmentalize areas of high pressure which can create drilling problems and safety hazards. Consequently, a full understanding of a fault network at basin and reservoir scales is a prerequisite for exploration in new areas as well as a prerequisite for well planning and drilling in development fields and mature fields. Obtaining a holistic understanding of fault networks depends not only on a geoscientists ability to locate, interpret, and model faults from subsurface signals and images (well logs, image logs, seismic data), but also to perform complex spatial and topological queries on the fault network data to better understand the history of subsurface deformation and its current deformed state.

What impact do you think the solution to this Challenge will have on the environment/more efficient use of natural resources?

Fractured reservoirs contain a large proportion of the world’s hydrocarbon reserves. Through a better understanding of a geologic basin and reservoirs fault network, geoscientists can not only drill less, but they can also drill safer. Indeed today, horizontal drilling techniques are employed in fractured reservoirs to optimize their drainage. By “geosteering” perpendicular to groups of natural fractures, engineers are able to drill fewer but more economic wells.

Paradigm posted a similar Challenge on the InnoCentive marketplace in 2008 – how does this Challenge differ from the earlier Challenge?

In 2008 we did post a Challenge similar to this one.  The Challenge involved defining an optimum fault network data structure. Based on the responses to the initial Challenge and the importance of the problem to both Paradigm and its oil and gas customers, we decided to refine the Challenge and raise the stakes.  We enriched and injected the initial Challenge with digital data examples, more real data images, and clarification on the current state of the art and suggestions for where Solvers should look for improvement. This Challenge upgrade was backed up with a substantially higher award (maximum of $100,000) to entice Solvers from many fields and to encourage them to participate in this scientific Challenge.

This is your third InnoCentive Challenge. What have you learned thus far about sourcing your Challenges on the InnoCentive Marketplace?

Paradigm has posted three Challenges to the InnoCentive Marketplace. With each posting we have experienced a gratifying spectrum of responses reflecting the diverse perspectives coming from outside the comfort zone of our own industry and scientific disciplines. Working with InnoCentive to impose more discipline and clarity in the formulation of our Challenges, has helped us help our Solvers to focus their responses.

Why do you think open innovation is a good fit for problems in the oil and gas industry?

The oil and gas industry searches for subsurface hydrocarbons using many scientific disciplines, mathematical methods, computer science advances, and engineering practices. Many of the seeds of advancement in this industry have originated outside of the oil and gas industry. In spite of the tremendous pool of talent inside the industry, we believe it is a healthy exercise to seek solutions to new problems from outside, as time-to-solution pressures are becoming more acute in this unpredictable oil and gas economy.

Thanks Duane – good luck with your Challenge.

Thank you.

Trevor Rose, an entrepreneur from Australia with a background in engineering and computer science is one of the winning Solvers of the Improving Banking Processes in the Developing World Challenge.

I have worked in over 60 jobs in my life, so as I was writing this personal profile and looking at the other Solver profiles, I couldn’t think of a line that says “I am this”, because I have done a million & one tiny little things, none of which was really a career in the way most people experience (meaning the money was absolute rubbish).

Only in the last decade did I decide to become TRULY impoverished by becoming a mature age student & attending university to study engineering & computer science, running up a massive bill with the government.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to finish, and the university in question wasn’t turning out to be quite the value for money I’d hoped, so I decided to go back to the workforce.   (Ok, I’ll be honest… I had NO OPTION but to go back to the workforce, which seemed strange as this was simultaneous to a million news reports about how Australia is so short of professional engineers & other technically trained people, and I spent a good deal of time wondering why it never occurs to the decision makers to just support people through education properly, and voilá problem solved. But then hey, what would I know?)

One day I was perusing the InnoCentive web site and saw the Challenge about improving banking processes in the developing world.  I thought it sounded like an interesting problem, and it didn’t take specialist knowledge in fields that I don’t have enough of a clue about to even attempt solving.   Then when I read the further details, it just started me thinking, and before I knew it, there I was writing down the solution that came to mind.  (ok, it took a bit of scribbling on paper & drawing diagrams & nutting things over… but that’s part of the process I get hooked on & why I love to solve problems)  I do like the possibility that something I thought of might help someone in a country where the economy is very tough already, and perhaps make their lives easier in some way… i hope so… but it wasn’t the reason for attempting the Challenge.  I like the idea of being an InnoCentive Solver because for me it’s like a little billboard that will say to those who doubted me in life, that maybe they are wrong and I am a lot cleverer than I look.  

My next project is to get my own business going.   I’m hoping that this will allow me to do 3 main things:

I don’t have a website up & running yet for my business, but anyone who is interested in having a fresh perspective on their business, and maybe discussing some ideas for areas of potential improvement can contact me tarose.trevor@gmail.com.  I need to build up some further case studies to publish, so I would be happy to have a look into what you are doing and where you think it’s all coming unstuck.