White House Starts National Challenges

The White House has launched a new website where people can compete for prizes by providing solutions to tough U.S. problems. Called Challenge.gov, the site follows up on a 2009 speech by President Barack Obama in which he called on federal agencies to increase the use of prizes and challenges to promote innovation to solve problems. “Prizes engage our nation’s top talent as cocreators in the search for solutions and help the nation accelerate innovation while achieving better results,” U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra said when announcing the program. Initially, 15 agencies posted 35 challenges. A couple of the more technical items include a $1.5 million prize from NASA for the best full-scale aircraft that can fly 200 miles in less than two hours using the equivalent of 1 gal of gasoline per occupant. And $10 million in prizes is offered by the Department of Energy for development of a production-capable vehicle with fuel efficiency in excess of 100 miles per gal of gasoline.