Perspectives on Innovation

Greetings, InnoCentive Solvers—

Quick note to inform you that we’ve posted two new Emergency Response 2.0 Challenges around the Gulf Oil Spill disaster: Emergency Response 2.0: Oil Detection on Ocean Surfaces; and Emergency Response 2.0: Oil Collection in Gulf of Mexico.

Innovative solutions to these Challenges will help the organizers and crews clean the water and beaches in the short and medium terms.

For the Oil Detection on Ocean Surfaces Challenge we’re looking for new ways to improve the conventional imaging processes that are currently being deployed, i.e., satellite radar, visual, LIDAR, etc. We are also looking for ways to improve aerial tools aboard helicopters and aircrafts, and, to a lesser degree, surface spotting techniques.

For the Oil Collection in the Gulf of Mexico Challenge we’re looking for commercially available equipment, technology and ideas that would enable the rapid conversion of commercial vessels (e.g., fishing) into oil recovery units.

On the back-end, a board of advisers, currently being assembled, will review the submissions from both Challenges.

That said we also want to take advantage of the perspectives, skills, and talents in the InnoCentive network. In order to accomplish that, we have activated the discussion board within the project rooms.

Please take a look as soon as you can.

Best,

JD

The days and weeks pass, and oil continues to blast upwards from the bottom of the Gulf. And as time marches on, we continue to receive submissions from you about how to stop the gushing oil and protect the coastline. Because of the importance and magnitude of this disaster, and because we want to keep you apprised of various InnoCentive activity around this Challenge, we are glad to share during the coming weeks the details of several key solutions and ideas we’ve received from you. Today’s post is a summary of a submission by Michael White.

Michael White, of Templeman Automation, proposes pneumatic barriers made of sintered rubber aeration tubing.  Such tubing is available for aquaculture applications at about $1/ft, making rapid deployment of long-baseline (>1000ft) pneumatic barriers cost-effective.  It can be made of recycled materials, and does not suffer reduced efficiency from salinity encountered by traditional bubblers.  Specifically, the strength, flexibility, and low drag of sintered bubblers make them well suited for towed applications in which a shipboard compressor provides air to a trailing bubbler system.  Such a mobile system has advantages in three depth regimes:

1. Surface – Towed bubbler arrays provide mobile platforms for “corralling” moving oil as more permanent barriers are devised; adapting to immediate ocean current and wind conditions.  Templeman Automation has tested aeration array systems with up to 1000cfm air flow at over 8 knots.
2. Mid-Water – The depth of the towed bubbler system can be adjusted such that oil suspended in the water column is above the array and thus entrained in the rising bubble plume.  Oil is thereby forced to the surface for remediation.
3. Sea Floor – Towed bubblers can be used to “suction” oil from the sea floor, providing a non-contact pressure gradient that is gentle to sea-floor habitats.  The small bubbles created by aeration tube systems transfer beneficial dissolved-oxygen to affected sea-floor ecosystems.

Michael White, Templeman Automation

The days and weeks pass, and oil continues to blast upwards from the bottom of the Gulf. And as time marches on, we continue to receive submissions from you about how to stop the gushing oil.

To date we’ve received over 800 formal submissions and, starting this week, we want to showcase several solutions that exemplify of the breadth and depth of this community’s work on this Challenge. Patterns of solutions have emerged, as well as some very novel approaches to both the gushing well and the clean-up.

It’s been tough getting BP’s attention—tough for the Feds, tough for local seaside communities, and tough for us to get your solutions to the right hands.

But we’re still pushing, still communicating with the right channels.

We will have an update soon from our CEO, Dwayne Spradlin, about our progress and what he knows from the front lines.

Meanwhile, watch for the first in a series of Gulf Oil Spill solution profiles in the next day or two. Who knows—it might be yours.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

As attempts to stem the flow of oil from the broken well in the Gulf of Mexico continue to fail, the intensity of media attention has increased.  At the same time, our Solvers continue to rise to the challenge and submit thoughtful and novel solutions to the problem.  Last night, InnoCentive CEO Dwayne Spradlin spoke with Hardball’s Chris Matthews about some “out of the box” ideas we’ve seen from our Solvers – and about the need for those in charge to start looking very seriously at what our Solver community has to offer.

Oil Spills.  Hurricanes.  Tsunamis.  Natural and man-made disasters are, by their nature, devastating and unpredictable.  But our response to them shouldn’t be.

If we’ve learned anything from the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it’s that great ideas aren’t enough to solve a catastrophic problem.  There must be a fast and efficient way to collect, vet, manage and mobilize solutions, personnel and the resources to solve the problem.  This is why we’ve created the Emergency Response 2.0 Pavilion – to provide a place for Solvers to apply their unique expertise when cataclysmic events occur.  This  pavilion is our commitment that if and when a disaster does occur, we’re ready to engage the best minds in the world to provide solutions, and to get those solutions to the people who can put them into action.

We’ll be adding functionality to this space over time, including news feeds and other resources, but for now, we’re using the Pavilion simply to house Challenges that need to be solved immediately.  For more information about specific crises, and to get the latest updates from agencies on the ground in disaster affected areas, click on the following links  -

Red Cross – http://www.redcross.org/

Deepwater Horizon Response Home Page – http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com

Crisis Commons – http://crisiscommons.org/

United States Environmental Protection Agency – http://www.epa.gov/

InnoCentive’s stand on the need for Emergency Response 2.0 – http://blog.innocentive.com/?s=emergency+response&x=21&y=13