In the last 24 hours we’ve wrapped up two big crowdsourcing challenges, tapping in to the global wealth of knowledge and inviting solvers all over the world to tackle some tough problems.
In our challenge “Data-Driven Prediction of Plasma Performance” we asked participants to apply statistical techniques and/or computational tools to identify new patterns in plasma data from our best performing plasma injector, PROSPECTOR. If you’ve been watching the leaderboards over the past few weeks you’ll know that competition has been fierce, with the final submissions due April 13.
Hot on the heels of our plasma performance challenge was “Fast Current Switch in Plasma Device“, where we asked for your outside-the-box ideas on how to make a large current in our plasma injectors quickly jump a gap. As of midnight last night that challenge is now closed, and our technical teams are contemplating submissions from both challenges and selecting the winners.
General Fusion is a small company trying to solve a big problem, so we’re looking forward to the fresh ideas that this global pool of talent can bring to transforming the world’s energy supply. People like Kirby Meacham, the MIT-trained mechanical engineer with over 30 years of experience (and at least as many patents to his name) who came up with the winning design for the first challenge, “Method for Sealing Anvil Under Repetitive Impacts Against Molten Metal“. We’re also well aware that big ideas come from unlikely places, so we’re excited to see contributors from all sorts of backgrounds putting their minds to the problem.
Results for the latest round of challenges will be announced soon – watch this space!
