Steve Rader is the Program Manager of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI) and the NASA Tournament Lab, which are working to infuse challenge and crowdsourcing innovation approaches at NASA and across the federal government. The CoECI is a crowdsourcing platform, which launches various challenges and invites participants worldwide to create innovative solutions for NASA and the US government. Steve holds a mechanical engineering degree from Rice University and has worked at NASA’s Johnson Space Center for 33 years. In 2015, Steve was named as one of the 20 Challenge Mentors for the US Government Services Administration’s Prizes and Challenges for the government-wide community of practice.
Fatiha Boukouyen: Steve, could you please explain what the NASA CoECI is, as well as its missions, values and how it functions?
Steve Rader: NASA’s CoECI was founded in 2011 at the request of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) with the goal of promoting open methods, open source, open data, open innovation, and hence crowdsourcing. The center’s goal is to help not only NASA but also other federal agencies in the United States learn how to use open innovation and understand the forces driving it. The center researches best practices in collaboration with academia – Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – and assists projects within the agency and across the federal government in creating value by solving difficult problems using open methods. The center has approximately 50 crowds ranging in size from 10,000 to 70 million members and has completed approximately 800 projects. The goal is to identify problems that are becoming more valuable and bring them to the attention of the government.
Fatiha Boukouyen: Great, so there are a lot of actions that you have taken. Concerning value co-creation, what does this concept mean to you?
Steve Rader: Value co-creation entails utilizing other resources, such as open innovation, to generate valuable ideas. Crowdsourcing is useful because it allows you to tap into a diverse pool of participants with a wide range of experiences, expertise and perspectives. This method enables the development of novel ideas and technologies that can be implemented. Open innovation is the starting point for innovation, and organizations can find value by leveraging crowdsourcing. It does, however, necessitate a well-crafted challenge as well as curated communities such as Topcoder, HeroX and DrivenData. These communities filter and define solutions, and many offer opportunities for collaboration and team-building. The rapid rate of change and volume of new technologies and ideas are critical, as 90% of all scientists who have ever lived on earth are alive today. Crowdsourcing allows organizations to integrate with a greater volume of innovation and technology, connecting the dots between industries, thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), 3D printing and robotics.
Fatiha Boukouyen: Interesting. Why does NASA opt for the approach of value co-creation?
Steve Rader: Traditional methods of obtaining technological knowledge and innovation frequently overlook new technologies. As demonstrated in the search for lunar dust, crowdsourcing can aid in the discovery of new companies and technologies. This method, which involved a specialized team, resulted in the identification of 25 companies and technologies that could have an impact on their operations. Better discovery methods are required to innovate, remain competitive and remain relevant.
Fatiha Boukouyen: Is there any specific value co-creation process that NASA CoECI follows?
Steve Rader: To be effective, a problem must be addressed by the problem owner and the appropriate stakeholders, including those who are most familiar with the issue. Problem analysis is essential for understanding constraints, assumptions and current performance. The goal is to improve the existing solution by reducing power or space requirements. The requirements are then put out to bid, and vendors are asked to submit bids. Different crowds operate in different ways, with Topcoder breaking down problems into smaller chunks, DrivenData hosting larger contests and HeroX hosting multi-phase luminary labs. The goal is to find the best solution for the problem by weighing various approaches and determining which one will produce the most successful outcome.
Fatiha Boukouyen: Are there specific criteria for selecting solutions?
Steve Rader: Problem analysis entails weighing feasibility, cost and performance factors. For machine learning, a scoring algorithm is frequently developed and tested using log loss. Owners of challenges have a high-level understanding of the criteria, which are then passed on to a platform or contractor using a specialized method. The vendor puts the process to the test, allowing for customization to the specific platform and crowd, and ensuring the challenge owner has a say in the process.
Fatiha Boukouyen: Concerning the challenges launched by the CoECI, what are their types, what organizations launch them and how are they created?
Steve Rader: The CoECI has run over 800 crowdsourcing projects, which include challenges to create high-level, conceptual designs, computer-aided designs, detailed engineering designs, graphics, videos and process improvement initiatives. We also run projects with mini-contests and hire experts to assist us in reaching our objectives. Over the last five or six years, we have moved to freelance platforms, utilizing the gig economy to find experts with whom to collaborate. Crowds and challenges are beneficial, but they can be costly and have a high signal-to-noise ratio in data. We collaborate with all NASA programs, such as the Artemis Program, which is our human spacecraft, our planetary exploration programs, our Earth science programs and our aeronautics research programs. We also work with over 20 federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Commerce such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and International Trade Administration, and the Department of Justice as well as the Veterans Administration.
Fatiha Boukouyen: Are there any differences between the internal crowd and external crowd?
Steve Rader: The internal crowd is comprised of all of our employees working for the agency. They can win non-monetary prizes such as meetings with management, presentations and cool NASA experiences. The majority of challenges are high-level and take only a few hours to complete. The agency secures these rewards through crowdsourcing, and the platform is used to motivate employees in a variety of ways. External crowd challenges are those that we run with public participation through the NASA Tournament Lab (NTL). While these challenges typically have large monetary awards, crowdsourcing participation is generally driven by four incentives: gold, glory, guts and good. Gold represents money, whereas glory recognizes intelligence and guts promotes hard work.
Fatiha Boukouyen: Is value creation the same for both types of crowds – internal and external?
Steve Rader: Our internal crowd is more concerned with knowledge sharing, allowing the agency to identify existing solutions before investing in external crowd challenges. External challenges are viewed as a way to collaborate with the public, inviting them to participate in problem solving and giving them a stakeholder feel. These public challenges are frequently focused on discovery of technical solutions and value creation.
Fatiha Boukouyen: In terms of the co-creators – the crowd and the organizations. What are their main characteristics?
Steve Rader: Crowdsourcing is a powerful tool for connecting talented individuals, groups and startups in order to solve problems and replicate solutions. It enables people to share their ideas and work hard on their projects, frequently overcoming the constraints of traditional job roles. Crowds have been able to solve problems that experts have been working on for years in as little as 60 days. A case study of Roche Diagnostics, for example, revealed that a crowdsourced challenge was able to solve a problem that had gone unsolved for 15 years. This demonstrates that these crowdsourcing communities contain people with extraordinary talents. Some of these experts may be coming out of academic research. According to one study, as many as 10,000 graduate students/post-docs per year are moving from academia into normal life where they may go on to work as safety officers or housewives, and can be tapped into through crowdsourcing. This approach enables people to realize their full potential and contribute to technological advancement.
Fatiha Boukouyen: What solutions can leaders adopt to maintain value creation? For example, in this area where a variety of technologies have appeared.
Steve Rader: Organizations face a challenge due to the rate of change. To remain competitive, they should concentrate on their problem and implement crowd-sourced surveillance programs. Methods such as human-centric design and co-creation can assist them in understanding their business problem. As market conditions change, businesses should ask people about their approach to addressing the problem and what they require from solutions on a regular basis. While AI may play a role in the future, understanding the constantly changing environment is critical.
Fatiha Boukouyen: Steve, thank you so much for sharing your valuable insights with us.
