Concerning Federally Sponsored Inducement Prizes in Engineering and Science (1999) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix A: A Taxonomy of Technology Prizes and Contests
Appendix A: A Taxonomy of Technology Prizes and Contests
Pages 21-34
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From page 21... ...
Appendix A A Taxonomy of Technology Prizes and Contests Excerpted from "Background Paper: Workshop on the Potential for Promoting Technological Advance through Federally Sponsored Contests and Prizes" Prepared for the National Academy of Engineering by Patrick H Win~iham
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More recent inducement prizes include a private prize for superefficient refrigerators, a prize-like program at the Federal Communications Commission in the early ~ 990s, two new private prizes for innovative space launch vehicles, and several prizes offered for achievements in computing. Another set of inducement prizes serve primarily educational purposes, encouraging young people to enter engineering contests and awarding the prizes to the best entries.
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As discussed in the next section, one notable example is the cash prize offered by the British Parliament in 1714 to the first person who could develop a reliable method to measure longitude at sea.
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across the Atlantic. 1.3.4 Performance Improvements Sponsors also can offer a prize to those who can improve the performance of an existing product used for an existing application.3 The next section discusses one such case, in which utility firms offered a cash prize for a refiigerator company that could best reduce energy costs.
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The prizes can be designed either to encourage new types of technologies or aircraft or to encourage pilots to stretch existing aircraft types to accomplish new tasks.S Related to aviation prizes are what one can call "aviation procurement contests." Air forces have long offered funding to enable competing teams of contractors to build prototypes of new aircraft. Of ficials then hold "fly-offs" to see which prototype best meets government needs.
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offered what amounted to a technology prize. It offered guaranteed slices of the telecommunications spectrum to companies that committed to developing and implementing innovative communications services and technologies-particularly in the areas of wireless personal communications services (PCS)
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Louis announced that it would give $ ~ O million to the first private team that develops and safely flies a spacecraft capable of carrying three passengers into suborbital flight and back. The craft must make two suborbital flights within a two-week period, meaning that the prize will go to a reusable vehicle.7 The X PRIZE comes at a time when rocket technology is relatively well known and a number of entrepreneurial companies are interested in getting into the space launch business.
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An apparent assumption behind both prizes is that the potential for commercial markets and government contracts will add to the incentives provided by the prizes themselves. 2.~.S International Computer Go Championship This prize offers 40,000,000 Taiwanese dollars (about $~.6 million in U.S.
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These prizes encourage and reward scientific and technical progress in the field of nanotechnology, which the Institute defines as "the coming ability to build materials and products with atomic precision." The grand prize will be at least $250,000 and will be awarded for the demonstration of a 50-nanometer S-bit adder and a LOO-nanometer robot arm. Starting in 1997, the Institute awards two $5,000 prizes each year-one for the best work published in recent years on experimental aspects of nanotechnology, and one for the best theoretical work of recent years.
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Harriet Zuckerman estimates that as of ~ 992 there were some 3,000 science prizes available in North America alone, 5 times as many as 20 years earlier. Some of the newer awards are in the same fields as the Nobel prizes, while others are conscious attempts to create prestigious awards in fields not covered by the Nobels.is As mentioned earlier, recognition prizes may have multiple purposes.
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One does not apply for the award; the National Science Board solicits nominations and makes an annual selection. United States citizens or permanent residents who are 35 years of age or younger, or not more than 5 years beyond receiving their Ph.D.
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Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, an independent federal agency established by Congress in 1992, gives an annual $100,000 Columbus Foundation Award. First presented in ~996 and awarded in conjunction with Discover magazine, the Foundation calls these awards "fellowship grants." Each "is intended to recognize an individual American who has improved, or is attempting to improve, the world through ingenuity and innovation, and to provide incentive and opportunity for continuing research." These prizes, by themselves, are unlikely to induce researchers to undertake work that they would not otherwise have pursued, but the prize money does support additional research that the Foundation thinks is useful.
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}6 Notes: This brief list is not meant to be comprehensive. For a complete list, see Gale Research International, editor, Awards, Honors and Prizes, 15th edition, Volumes 1-2, Detroit: Gale Research International, 1999.
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