Discovery Park launches Big Idea Challenge 2.0

March 9, 2019

Following on the success of the inaugural Big Idea Challenge, Discovery Park is announcing the commencement of the Big Idea Challenge 2.0. This innovative program will continue its mission of providing resources to interdisciplinary teams of Purdue faculty and students pursuing bold proposals that address global challenges.

“Why the Big Picture Matters: The Systems-Level Approach to Address Global Challenges” will focus on bringing teams together that will pursue system-level projects that integrate revolutionary science and engineering ideas with crucially important social, political and ethical concepts. These efforts will focus on the “big picture” to produce transformative ideas with wide-ranging, lasting impact.

The program will fund selected teams for up to two years (depending on the scope of the proposal). This program is designed to nucleate ideas and create opportunities for new and significant external funding — both public and private. At the same time, it will chart new pathways to discoveries, innovations, and social and policy solutions, while training the next generation of future interdisciplinary talent.

Sasha Boltasseva, professor in the College of Engineering and the Discovery Park inaugural fellow, is heading the initiative.  “I am very excited to be so closely involved with the Big Idea Challenge 2.0,” she says. “The formation of talented metadisciplinary teams of faculty and students creates the opportunity for some truly bold, game-changing research to emerge. It will be interesting to see the results.”

The themes for the Big Idea Challenge 2.0 align with Discovery Park’s strategic theme framework. In addressing these themes, successful proposals will be multifaceted, involving both social sciences and STEM faculty, outlining the equal-foot contribution of each to the overall project. Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Health: The science of animal and human disease, and the future of health care and personalized medicine, including the social, political and ethical questions surrounding these issues.
  • Sustainability: The interconnected themes of energy, climate change, food security, water, infrastructure and resiliency, and the environment.
  • Global security and defense innovation: Including autonomy, robotics, cognitive systems, hypersonics, policy studies, energetics and propulsion, cybersecurity, rapid prototyping and manufacturing, and related themes.
  • Digital/Quantum/Nano:
    • All aspects of quantum information science and technology as well as emerging quantum economy.
    • The future of nanoelectronics, photonics, and computing, both architectures and algorithms.
    • All aspects of nano, and particularly the convergence of nano-bio-data technologies in the life sciences.
    • Data science and social-technical approaches that may affect the future of organizational and agriculture, energy, manufacturing, transportation,  health care, civic collaboration, equitable participation in public life, political depolarization and other fields.
    • The future of human-machine collaboration supported by artificial intelligence, including methods and frameworks applicable across disciplines.
    • Internet of Things development and applications.
    • Ethical and policy implications for individual and collective equity, inclusivity, security, and freedom brought about by data science and digital technology applications.

“Our inaugural Big Idea Challenge was very successful,” says Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, vice president for Discovery Park. “It created new interdisciplinary research programs that have successfully generated follow-on extramural funding at a rate of 10:1 return on investment, to date. The launching of Discovery Park’s Big Idea Challenge 2.0 will allow us to continue to converge the strengths of Purdue faculty and students throughout campus to generate disruptive ideas to solve global challenges in health, sustainability and security.”

Proposals should outline how the team will work with at least two Purdue colleges and two Discovery Park centers or institutes. Center/institute directors and Purdue colleges may support as many proposals as they wish. Proposals should incorporate elements related to entrepreneurship and policy dimensions of the global challenge, as appropriate. It is also encouraged that the team partner with local or global partners on the societal impact aspect such as a city council, local schools, policymakers, industrial partners and others.

Proposal timeline

Proposals are due on April 15. Refer to the Big Idea Challenge 2.0 webpage for proposal details. The Agile Strategy Laboratory will hold two Value Proposition Workshops to assist teams in developing their proposal’s value proposition. Workshops will be held 1:30-2:30 p.m. March 18 at the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, Room 129, and 8:30-9:30 a.m. March 19 at Grissom Hall, Room 134. Boltasseva will conduct a Q&A session at 2:30-3:30 p.m. March 28 at Burton D. Morgan Center, Room 129.

Research teams will be notified by April 29 whether their proposal will advance to the final selection round. Finalists will give oral presentations of their proposals on May 9-10 to the selection committee. These presentations will be open to the public. Winners will be announced on May 13.

Additional questions can be directed to Boltasseva at aeb@purdue.edu, or Cliff Wojtalewicz, assistant director of Discovery Park, at cliffw@purdue.edu. Information on Discovery Park’s first Big Idea Challenge, frequently asked questions, and winning teams can be found here.