Perspectives on Innovation

Solver since 2010

Occupation: Assistant instructor at UT Southwestern medical center
Education: Ph.D in biochemistry
Residence: United States
Challenges awarded: 1

Challenge won: New Innovative Prophylaxis Approaches to Protect Against OP Pesticide Poisoning ($15,000 Challenge)

I’m an assistant instructor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, specializing in bioinformatics and molecular biology. I was born in Castellón, Spain, where I grew up very interested in science, since my father is a biologist and my mother a chemistry teacher. I obtained a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Barcelona in 1997. While earning my Ph.D. at the University of Valencia, I was privileged to be mentored by Dr. M.D. Ferrando, as well as my own father, who allowed me to open my own research line at one of the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) centers, the Institute of Aquaculture Torre de la Sal, which is located nearby really nice beaches. While working there I realized that innovation was a crucial aspect of science and I began looking for applications of my research into the mechanisms of resistance to oxidative stress and pesticides. That work led to a couple of patents and several papers, one of which was distinguished with the ‘Best Publication Award on Environmental Research’ by the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) and AstraZeneca. A few months after defending my PhD in 2003, I received a postdoctoral fellowship to study the effects of oxidative stress on gene regulation with Dr. Bruce Demple at the Harvard School of Public Health. In 2006 I got the chance to lead a project to uncover the molecular events driving kidney cancer and I moved with Dr. James Brugarolas to UT Southwestern, where I received another postdoctoral fellowship from Generalitat Valenciana.

My own family, like many others, has felt directly the devastating effects of cancer: Though I could not help my brother, I have the satisfaction of identifying some genes involved in renal cell carcinoma, as well as a novel transcription factor regulated by the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), which plays a critical role in cell growth and is deregulated in about half of human tumors. These findings may create new therapeutic opportunities and someday benefit patients.

The first time I learned about InnoCentive was in an advertisement on nature.com, which got my attention because I knew a good answer to the question it asked. InnoCentive offers a new way of solving problems for companies by reaching out to a wide audience of different backgrounds, but it also gets non-industry-oriented people closer to the issues that really matter to the companies. At the end, innovation promotes the progress of our society and it’s very rewarding to be part of it.

Today’s blog post was written by Tara Crawford, a member of a student team of undergraduates at University of Ottawa that received an award for the Challenge “Nuclear Test Monitoring and Verification Methods“. Tara discusses how an InnoCentive Challenge was incorporated in to an undergraduate course, and how she and her teammates were inspired to collaborate and develop a winning solution to this real-world problem. The team members were Veronica Santos, Cody Sarch, Phil O’Hearn, Christine Achampong, and Tara Crawford.

We solved the Challenge “Nuclear Test Monitoring and Verification Methods” as a group in a fourth-year Biotechnology course this past year. The criteria for the course was to invent something and file for a patent. Our professor also urged us to look for online Challenges.

We looked at the InnoCentive website and thought that “Nuclear Test Monitoring and Verification Methods” was a good opportunity for us to apply our science background as well as learn new areas (we are a group of five students in Biochemistry, Biomedical Science/Chemistry, Biopharmaceutical science, and chemical engineering). We researched many experts in the field and invited them to be guest speakers in our class so that we could ask them questions about the topics we were trying to apply to our solution. We needed to expand our knowledge into the radionuclides that we wanted to detect and the methods currently available to do that, as well as other possibilities that had not been investigated yet.

Our class consisted of 3 hours of lecture time a week where we initially learnt about patenting, intellectual property, and were able to brainstorm with our groups.  Then we also had an extra 1.5 hours a week to meet in an informal lecture setting and discuss our progress. Outside of class time our group met 1-2 times a week to work more specifically on our solution. This involved a lot of brainstorming and allowed us to bring together all of our individual research.

The experience was a great one for us. We learnt a new way of learning since it was a hands off approach by our professor. Throughout our undergraduate degree we had taken many courses that were very structured, but this allowed us to do whatever topic we wanted. We improved our team building skills and really got an idea of how our previous knowledge could be applied to the real world. We all really enjoyed it, although it required a lot of self discipline to ensure we met deadlines!

Konstantinos Vougas was at the top of the leader-board for the InnoCentive’s first Prodigy Challenge, The Predictive Data Analysis Challenge. The Prodigy is a Solution Test Tool that provides rapid feedback to Solvers and displays the performance of the top ten performing Solvers found since the Challenge has been posted. We have asked Konstantin to share his experience with working on this new Challenge type in particular and on InnoCentive in general.

Hello Konstantin. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us about working on the first Prodigy Challenge. Just so we have a bit of background, can you tell us how learned about InnoCentive and what made you become an InnoCentive Solver?

I am always on the lookout for new opportunities in the field of science and I am attracted to the internet as a means of communication. Therefore, as soon as I discovered InnoCentive from a Google search, I knew that this was for me.  What InnoCentive does is globalize R&D and I think that’s great.

Have you worked on any Challenges prior to the Predictive Data Analysis Challenge? If so, can you tell us about them?

Although I have been checking on the challenges posted on InnoCentive for the past couple of years, the Prodigy Challenge was the very first challenge I decided to undertake and formally submit a solution. I guessed I jumped straight into the middle of the ocean…

What attracted you to the Prodigy Challenge?

Ever since I was a child I had a soft spot for scripting, mathematics and challenging problems. As soon as I read the details of the challenge it instantly fit my criteria. This Challenge had a  huge dataset, with more than a million  features out of which only a few carried the information (or part of it) needed for a good prediction, buried within experimental noise, missed measurements and small number of observations sounded just about right, I just couldn’t say no. (more…)

For the last three years, InnoCentive has been posting marketing Challenges that showcase the diversity and creativity of InnoCentive Solvers, and to drive InnoCentive’s market awareness. These Challenges are aimed at not only involving the “artistic temperament” of our Solvers, but also to demonstrate to our Seekers that the InnoCentive Solver Community is a great resource for “voice of the customer” input for Challenges that are considered to be part of more “traditional” business domains, such as marketing.

Well, we’ve just posted our Fourth Annual InnoCentive Video Challenge! It’s called The Uniquely Prepared Mind, where we ask you to demonstrate the idea that a uniquely prepared mind is capable of solving even the most demanding Challenges the world has to offer. This is why the InnoCentive Solver is the perfect person to create this video – you know Solvers best and you are always up for a Challenge – pardon the pun.

This year, we’re guaranteeing $10,000 in awards for the best 30-second shorts that nail the 2011 Video Theme, The Uniquely Prepared Mind.

The first prize will receive a minimum of $5,000, and we’re guaranteeing $10,000 in awards. The top 20 runners-up will receive IC-branded shirts with the website’s new look and feel! Visit YouTube to see the 2010 winner and runners-up from previous years, then prepare your mind and submit a winner.

Clock is ticking! Check it out, open a Project Room, and share it, too!

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