Perspectives on Innovation

Some of you may already know about SunNight Solar, and their BoGo light (Buy One, Give One). Founded by former US Diplomat Mark Bent, SunNight Solar uses the latest scientific advances in solar and lighting technology to provide light to people in developing countries like Africa and Peru. When you purchase a light from them, they match your purchase and send a light to the location of your choice. Well, I thought you might be interested to know that thanks to the diligent work of Russell McMahon (a Solver in New Zealand) SunNight Solar was able to improve their existing light so that it will illuminate an entire room as well as work as a handheld flashlight. They call it the SuperBogo. The company has already begun production of these lights, less than a year after posting the Challenge on the InnoCentive website. They are due to be available in August of this year. We’re thrilled to be a part of SunNight Solar’s work, and are proud to see our Solvers getting involved in these Challenges that really make a difference!

If you’d like to learn more about the BoGo light, visit the BoGo Light website.
For more from Mark Bent on his work with InnoCentive, watch this YouTube video.

If you have recently worked on a Challenge that really made an impact on you, we’d love to hear about it. Please post your comments below.

Liz

I’m not your typical Solver, I represent a different side of the InnoCentive demographic. While many of the successful Solvers on the site have years of experience and expertise, and labs of their own to try out ideas, I have been growing up in science along with InnoCentive. I first heard about it when it launched and I was an undergraduate chemistry student at the University of St. Thomas. My research mentor, Dr. Tom Ippoliti, showed me the site and said “Look at this, isn’t it cool?” We’d been doing a lot of custom synthesis to supplement our research budget were always looking for interesting synthetic problems to solve. As an undergraduate, I found that most of the Challenges were over my head. The only solutions I came up with turned out to be the ones that were already in place, or specifically mentioned as not suitable. Which in some ways was encouraging—it was reassuring to know that at least I was learning to think along the right track.

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I am not a fan of research for the sake of research. I like to see a direct application of my work. In this regard, InnoCentive is a gift from heaven for me. I have always been interested in applying my research and reasoning skills to practical problems. It is this kind of need that fires my imagination. If there is a problem that needs to be solved, I want to contribute to the solution.

I get a real kick out of working on a subject that is far from my inner sphere of expertise, especially when my ideas turn out to be good. Winning two InnoCentive Challenges, one on corrosion detection and the other on sulfur encapsulation for lubrication applications, are some of the achievements of which I am most proud. Of course I have rendered many other solutions that were not accepted. (Ed Melcarek and Nikolay Barashkov are strong competition!). But I did enjoy formulating them and I shall continue to send in proposed solutions, for who knows, maybe they will turn out to be valuable and, yes, lucrative.

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Many of you have told us that you got involved with InnoCentive because you wanted to work on problems that matter. We just posted a video on our YouTube Channel about an inspiring new Challenge from the Barr Foundation and Cambridge Energy Alliance. Their goal is to improve energy efficiency in room air-conditioners, and in turn reduce peak electricity demand in the city of Cambridge, MA (USA). This solution could have a global impact in the reduction of fuel usage if it is replicated in other cities and countries, and we are very proud to team up with the Cambridge Energy Alliance to help address this problem. Check out the Challenge here. The video is below:

Someone recently said to me, “Dwayne, why do you do what you do?” I suppose I’d been asked that question before, but this was the first time I ever stopped to think about its essence so deeply. Perhaps the best questions come with youth and the best answers with age. I spent some time putting my thoughts into words and decided I would share with you, my InnoCentive family, ‘Why I do what I do.’

When I replayed my own personal journey, I began to realize that there were two experiences, both culminating in moments of self realization, that have shaped me indelibly:

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