Perspectives on Innovation

Abshar Rashid is the winning Solver for the Challenge Software Trading Models.

Greetings – I am Abshar Rashid, a professional computer software engineer, with a Bachelors degree from NED University, Pakistan.

Though I have only 2 years of practical experience in the field (I recently graduated in 2008), I have been fortunate enough to work on some very innovative and creative projects during my past jobs. Apart from software development, I have a keen interest in Management Sciences and thus am currently pursuing an MBA degree along with a daytime job.

I become very interested in software development at a very young age: I designed my first software program (A Quiz Application) when I was around 9. It began when my mother bought me a mid-school level toy computer that had a built in Q-Basic compiler. This toy was probably too old for me, but it attracted my curiosity. I remember I had learnt the Q-Basic language all by myself using the Toy Computer’s manual. In fact, I was more interested in this “programming stuff” than all the other games/fun-activities this toy had to offer. I still have this toy with me today; alas it no longer works despite several attempts to fix it.

I joined InnoCentive only a few weeks before the submission date of my awarded Challenge. At first, I checked many Challenges that I found interesting and thought I could work on; but in the end I was only able to work on one because of some personal-life time constraints. My reason for working on this Challenge was its relevance to both of my favorite fields – Software Engineering and Management Sciences. I also anticipated getting a good learning and research experience, whether my solution was awarded or not. I believe, one way or another, knowledge always pays off. One might not succeed in a certain research challenge or a project at work, but the experience always transforms you into someone more skilled and knowledgeable. Initially, I was awed by the many scholarly profiles (PhDs or Masters) in the past winner’s list; I asked myself whether I should even attempt a solution, having such a comparatively humble experience and education. But then I just re-iterated to myself that this was a learning experience and winning was not everything. I guess it was this sincere commitment that made me come up with a solution that I was finally quite confident about, as I submitted it.

The research model that InnoCentive is using is highly commendable. It is advantageous to both the Seekers and Solvers – such that Seekers gain the advantage of ‘outsourcing’ their R&D issues to a collective talent from all around the world, while Solvers like me get a chance to work on highly practical and intricate R&D industrial issues. Also, I’d specially like to thank all the InnoCentive staff for being extremely supportive throughout. Not only was the evaluation process perfectly authentic; the awarding process was very straightforward and simple.

To me, innovation means to seek within. I never begin my research by searching or browsing through the internet for ideas and solutions. I do not remember having searched online for a single instance while working on this awarded Challenge. I always primarily try to come up with my own designs and my own methods, sometimes brainstorming for several straight hours. I would only search the net if my own brainstorming failed to yield the required results. InnoCentive provides the world with opportunities to polish and practice our creativity and knowledge. I’d recommend everyone to actively pursue the Challenges beyond their interests using InnoCentive as a Platform.

Fred Davis is a winning Solver for the Challenge Probabilistic Modeling of Spending Habits.

I’m a computational biologist with a background in pharmacy and biophysics. I joined InnoCentive three years ago when a colleague mentioned the basic premise: money for good ideas. One of the favorite parts of my job is helping others solve their problems, so I thought it would be nice to have a financial reward accompany the mental challenge. I skimmed through the InnoCentive challenge bulletins for almost two years before I saw a problem that I decided to work on. It had the phrase ‘probabilistic modeling’ in the title, an approach that is extensively used in computational biology. It was one of the first challenge titles I could even understand! As I read the details of the challenge, it became clear that many of the concepts used to tackle biological problems would apply immediately to the challenge. It was lots of fun working against a deadline to develop an analytical solution that could really help someone make sense of their data.

I think the challenges present a great chance for scientists to look at areas beyond their own immediate interests. I was pleasantly surprised to see how directly the skills I’ve developed in particular narrow slices of academic science can be transferred to problems in completely different domains. Reading the challenges also introduces me to problems that I would otherwise not think of, and new tools that are useful for other problems. I’ve tried two challenges so far, one of which was successful. Even the proposal that was not awarded was still fun to work on and I learned some pretty interesting biology and chemistry. I look forward to helping out with other interesting challenges!

If you’re even vaguely interested in the concept behind InnoCentive, I highly recommend at least signing up for the bulletins – It’s just a matter of time before you come across a problem that you can solve!

Ahmet Karabulut is one of the 2009 Top Solvers. His two winning Challenges were Phenylephirine Stabilization Method and Pd recovery and reuse from aqueous.

I am a scientist with backgrounds in molecular biology and molecular genetics. I have been a member of the InnoCentive community for two years. Last year, I solved two theoretical-IP transfer Challenges and I was recently announced as one of the Top Solvers of 2009, along with twelve other people in five countries.

I first encountered InnoCentive through an article in the March 2008 issue of The Science Magazine during a coffee break in the lab, titled “Science and Commerce: Science by the Masses.” The “Science by the Masses” part of the title got my interest immediately. The topic was about open innovation and InnoCentive, Inc. The overall concept seemed like a very unique platform. After reading the article, I was skeptical at first even though it was published in one of the top journals in the world. Nevertheless, I went home that day and registered as a Solver to try and understand the article. I browsed through the open Challenges for a while and, out of curiosity, I submitted a couple of proposals to test myself. Several weeks later, I received serious feedback from the InnoCentive moderators and sincere responses from the Seekers. At the end, the proposal that I submitted for the Phenylephirine Stabilization Method Challenge was awarded.

Later on last year, I won another Challenge award with my submission for the Pd recovery and reuse from aqueous. After I got my second award for this submission, a follow-up Challenge emerged based on my solution. Thus, I have also seen firsthand that my idea is extended to the next level and a new Challenge emerged based on the previous one. With this Challenge, it appeared to me that open innovation had emerged, evolved and became feasible enough for company R&D teams to consider the InnoCentive platform as a standalone part of the troubleshooting and development process for continuous innovation.

I believe innovation emerges from a combination of individual/team creativity and well established problem solving skills. I also believe an incubation phase is required for the process.

The solutions for the Challenges that I was awarded came out spontaneously, similar to a  “Eureka” fashion as described by other Solvers. However I believe this did not happen all of a sudden. Basically, I had reviewed the Challenges in detail, understood the problem in depth and then re-imagined the experimental conditions for my solution. After an incubation phase, I had a solution that I believe would fulfill the solution requirements.

The most enjoyable part of the process was to know that the Seekers were carefully evaluating proposals from anonymous submitters with as much care as the Solvers who were participating. It was obvious that the proposals were reviewed in detail according to the quality of the ideas proposed and the suitability of the solution based on the Seeker’s demands. The whole process was also a very convincing experience for me to realize that this double blind process was indeed a wonderful opportunity for young scientists such as myself.

The InnoCentive team manages the process quite effectively so that the best results are achieved without the Seeker revealing any critical know-how secrets that would otherwise be a serious issue. Since the Seekers already have the background and knowledge to identify effective solutions for their problems, the open innovation approach helps to greatly speed up their R&D process and stimulates their innovation.

InnoCentive has already demonstrated the effectiveness of this concept numerous times, especially when R&D teams have exhausted their internal resources and/or when then they have time constraints to find the best solution for a specific problem. InnoCentive is a great platform both for the innovation Seekers and for the Solver scientists that are interested in providing their knowledge and creativity without any interference.

The success of the InnoCentive community for leading the open innovation concept is based on the emergence of what I believe is known as the “virtual lab tourism,” facilitated by the InnoCentive team. Basically, InnoCentive brings together the world’s most talented people, and lets the scientific experts from different research backgrounds virtually visit the R&D department of the innovation Seekers. These participating Solvers are allowed to provide solutions and recommend new ideas with absolute freedom. For a given Challenge, I am convinced that the best solution can easily come out of such interactions between the innovation Seekers and the Solvers with InnoCentive’s excellent management.

I have always been interested in the Challenges in scientific research and experimentation and I try to learn as much as I can from different scientific disciplines. I should say that I have an intrinsic hunger for information. I also get a lot of satisfaction when I have an opportunity to use such information in research and I have found this opportunity when I joined the InnoCentive community in 2008.

Thanks to InnoCentive for providing me such opportunity to have this fulfilling experience that I enjoyed greatly. I am now very happy to be a member of InnoCentive community and I will continue participating future Challenges.

Sandip Bharate is one of the 2009 Top Solvers. One of his 2009 winning Challeges was the Olefin to Ketone Challenge.

I am a pharmacist by profession. My training was in synthetic organic chemistry and my present interests are in natural products and medicinal chemistry, more specifically in discovery of small molecules active against different biological targets. I obtained Bachelors (2001) and Masters Degree (2002) in Pharmacy from University of Pune and NIPER, India respectively. After completion of Masters, I worked in the discovery research unit of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Hyderabad, for six months before commencing my PhD, which I completed under the supervision of Dr. Inder Pal Singh at NIPER (India) in January 2007. Subsequently, I worked as a Research Scientist in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Piramal Life Sciences Ltd, Mumbai, for 16 months. Since May 2008, I am working as a Postdoctoral Scientist at The University of Montana, Missoula, USA.

I am a workaholic person, love working in the lab, writing research papers and staying in touch with recent happenings in new drug discovery. I have been actively involved in Medicinal Chemistry research since last 8 years. It is an interdisciplinary research area incorporating synthetic organic chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology, molecular biology and pharmaceutical chemistry in the search for better drugs. In fact, as the discipline has grown, it has embraced several other disciplines. And this is not the end; it is constantly evolving and rapidly expanding its domain. I am proud to be a part of this fraternity where research holds an important key in fulfilling the needs of the society and in helping people live healthier lives. It was during my undergraduate course in Pharmacy when I developed a keen interest in the field of Medicinal Chemistry and I have constantly nurtured it during my Master’s and PhD programs and professional experience.

‘InnoCentive’ is a very innovative way for companies and scientists and ideas to come together. First time I came to know about ‘InnoCentive’ was from my colleague (sometime in 2007). I became curious about it and went to the website homepage to know more about ‘InnoCentive’. I found it very exciting, and realized that this is a great chance to win a reward if my proposal will be chosen by a seeker company. I liked the concept of InnoCentive very much and was excited to submit a solution to atleast a one challenge to test my competence. I found this as a great chance to show my competence, work with my brain without limitations and the possibility to compete with others to find the best solution. Immediately, I got registered as a Solver. During initial two years after joining InnoCentive, I was regularly visiting ‘InnoCentive’ website but never made any attempt to solve any challenge until the start of 2009. I started submitting solutions in 2009, which became an exciting year for me. I won three Challenges and gained recognition as one of the Top Solvers by InnoCentive. My first attempt to solve a Challenge (Cooling compounds) was in February 2009, and it was the perfect challenge for me to start my contribution to InnoCentive.. I was pretty confident about winning this challenge after reading challenge details. Fortunately my first contribution was successful as my proposed solution was selected for the award.

My curiosity and interest in drug discovery led me to actively participate and win another Challenge (Lupus drug development) in the same year (2009) even though I knew very little about the disease ‘Lupus’. The Challenge details seemed attractive because of its clear and specific project criteria. Through this challenge, I was also very much excited to know in detail about the deadly autoimmune disease ‘Lupus’ and further understand hurdles involved in discovering new drug(s) for its treatment. For this challenge, I spent a couple of my weekends to understand the reasons why there were a large number of failures and only few successes in lupus clinical trials. Writing a proposal for this challenge was a challenging job but I found it very interesting. Subsequently, I made a couple of more successful solutions: Olefin to ketone; and Medicinal chemistry leads for crop protection.

‘InnoCentive’ is really a good forum for industries to post their problems, opening them to the whole world and thereby making a brain-storming exercise for researchers to think on these problems in a novel way. Most of the time, I found that, on my first quick look on the posted challenge, several of the problems seem to be simple, but after looking at the challenge details, I realized its complexity. Since this forum is highly competitive, there is always a risk involved in solving challenges but it is a great exercise to the brain and a good reason to know better about that particular research area. Working as a Solver with ‘InnoCentive’ is an opportunity to help change the future of innovation, and in turn create more opportunities for ourselves. I am happy to be a part of this community and look forward to solve more challenges in future.

Omar Parve has the distinction of being the first Estonian Solver to have won an InnoCentive Challenge. He was the winner of the “Isomeric Purity” Challenge.

I like such keywords as creativity, courageousness, independent positive personality.

My parents were veterinarians. My mother served as a chief veterinarian (“veterinary inspector”) of a county. I spent the first ten years of my life in a veterinary hospital because the family of the chief veterinarian was given lodging in a villa on the territory of the veterinary hospital. I participated everywhere and in everything, and “knew exactly” what kind of medicine had to be injected to a sick horse, cow or dog… I was allowed to watch all operations and observed how my parents and other experts were discussing diagnosis and making decisions about treatment.

My father had PhD degree in his veterinary field (related to horses) and had strong academic interests. He was always writing in the evenings and on weekends. He has written handbooks, a number of articles and chapters to university textbooks.

This experience I had in my childhood has been an important driving force behind my research interests. These are: medicinal chemistry, drug development, synthesis of active ingredients of medicines of very high stereochemical purity which sometimes allow unexpectedly efficient treatment. And one of the latest of these interests is elucidation of the role of lipases in natural sugar chemistry related to their ability to produce chemically active hydroxyaldehydes via decyclization of less active hemiacetals.

I remember having somewhat unexpectedly found an InnoCentive Challenge Bulletin in my mailbox in 2001. It was interesting reading material and I highly appreciated the free access to challenge details, but, unfortunately, until the end of August, last year, I was not an active solver.

In August 2009 a challenge on stereochemical problems caught my eye – it felt like a personal challenge. The Challenge details seemed attractive because of its clear, direct and honest style. I felt that due to my long-term experience in the field I could offer something useful to the seeker and the people working on this problem. Therefore I proposed my (awarded) solution.

InnoCentive has been a valuable medium, offering information about important problems in my own field of research as well as related fields. I find it inspiring for its multidisciplinary aspect. I feel having received a lot of useful information from InnoCentive and now, hopefully, I have given something back by solving a challenge. I am certainly interested in participating, together with InnoCentive and other solvers, in delivering more innovative solutions in the future.

When it comes to my hobbies, I have to mention the wonderful national parks of Estonia. I am fortunate enough to have a summer-house and some land in the oldest of them, Lahemaa National Park. Together with my classmates, I was one of the first employees of this national park in June 1971 when it was founded. We worked in the forest. Later I participated in restoring old windmills in the park. I absolutely enjoy the free time I spend there together with my family. Especially fantastic are the brown bears (wild) that come in fall to eat plums and apples in our garden. Visitors (other than bears) of Lahemaa may rent horses in several farms to have riding trips in such untouched environment near seashore in 70-100 km from Estonia’s capital of Tallinn.