GE (NYSE:GE) and partners today announced the winners of two global open
innovation challenges, the Industrial Internet Flight Quest 2 and 3D
Printing Production Quest. Through open innovation leaders Kaggle
and NineSigma,
the Quests challenged data scientists, academia, start-ups and
established businesses worldwide to use analytics and advanced
manufacturing processes to find ways to increase efficiency for airlines
and healthcare customers.
Steve Liguori, executive director of Global Innovation at GE said,
“Harnessing the power of the crowd is essential to disrupting current
processes and accelerating the pace of innovation. GE’s Quest program
taps into the world’s greatest minds to create products that bring new
values to our customers and speeds the time from mind to market.”
Flight Quest 2:
The second phase of GE’s Industrial Internet Flight Quest, in
partnership with Kaggle and Alaska Airlines, challenged data scientists
around the world to develop prescriptive algorithms to increase flight
efficiencies in real time, reducing delays and maximizing a flight’s
profitability. Using national airspace data provided by Flight
Stats, the winning Flight Quest algorithms determine the most
efficient flight routes, speeds and altitudes at any moment taking into
account variables such as weather, wind and airspace restraints. The
winning model proved to be up to 12 percent more efficient when compared
to data sets from actual flights.
GE plans to develop rapid prototyping from these algorithms to deliver a
first-of-a-kind solution that will give pilots and dispatchers a
prescriptive, network-wide view of flight route variables, which does
not exist today, and will allow airlines to recognize and adjust flight
routes in real time. GE determined that if each scheduled flight
worldwide reduced the distance it flew by only 10 miles, airlines could
reduce annual fuel consumption by 360 million gallons and save the
industry more than $3 billion each year.
Through Flight Quest, GE tapped Kaggle’s network of 130,000+ data
scientists worldwide and received more than 6,800 combined submissions
across 58 countries, with a total prize pool of $500,000 from GE. Industrial
Internet Flight Quest phase two winners include:
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1st Prize: Jose A. R. Fonollosa, Spain
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2nd Prize: Sergey Kozub, Russia
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3rd Prize: Willem Mestrom, The
Netherlands
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4th Prize: Dmytro Lystopad, Ukraine
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Milestone Prize: Team id, Russia
For full information about the Flight Quest winners, visit: http://www.gequest.com/c/flight2-final/details/winners.
“We are greatly impressed by the tenacity and creativity of participants
in the Industrial Internet Quests,” added Anthony Goldbloom, chief
executive officer at Kaggle. “The Quests show the power of crowdsourcing
in driving innovation in the aviation industry.”
Winning algorithms from the first phase of Flight Quest, announced
last year, proved to be 40 percent better than existing industry
tools for predicting aircraft arrival time.
GE used the algorithms to develop a prototype to predict the arrival
time for every aircraft in the sky at every second.
“Congratulations to all of the winners of Flight Quest 2 for their
outstanding efforts,” said Gary Beck, Alaska Airlines’ vice president of
flight operations. “Incorporating prescriptive data analytics into
airline operations would improve efficiency and benefit travelers with
more reliable information about when they'll arrive at their
destination.”
3D Printing Production Quest:
GE’s 3D Printing Production Quest, in partnership with NineSigma,
challenged participants to use additive manufacturing to produce complex
parts with high precision using refractory metals, a capability that
could transform how components are manufactured for x-ray-based medical
imaging systems such as mammography, cardiac catheterization and
computed tomography. As the global medical imaging market is expected to
reach $35.35 billion by 2019, GE envisions additive manufacturing
enabling new component designs that greatly simplify manufacturing and
reduce cost, while improving image quality and diagnostic capability.
Refractory metals have high density allowing them to very effectively
block x-rays without the environmental and health hazards associated
with lead, and also have very high melting temperatures, up to 6,000°F
(3,400°C). They are used in x-ray systems to control the path of x-rays
from the source through the patient’s body and some components such as
x-ray source tubes that take advantage of the high melting temperature.
The winners were selected based on statistical analysis of their
dimensional capability as well as several qualitative aspects of their
entries.
Participants representing research teams from academia, start-ups and
established businesses from six countries competed in the Quest in
effort to explore new uses for 3D printing technologies in the
healthcare sector. 3D Printing Production Quest winners include:
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Martin Leuterer, EOS GmbH, Germany
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Rob Snoeijs, LayerWise Marketing, Belgium
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Bernhard Tabernig, PLANSEE SE Innovation Services, Austria
Denys Resnick, vice president of Strategic Programs at NineSigma said,
“Through open innovation, we are able to uncover fresh perspectives from
experts in new areas, accelerate the pace of innovation and transform
industries, faster. This is the beauty of harnessing the power of a
global network of connected innovators from across industries.”
At GE, more than 200 high-tech manufacturing technologies are used in
over 80 plants around the globe to drive greater product performance,
quality and cost savings for healthcare customers. Additive
manufacturing is just beginning to find a place in medical imaging
systems. The results of the 3D Printing Production Quest opens up new
opportunities in x-ray systems that we can only begin to imagine.
For more information about GE Open Innovation, visit: http://www.ge.com/about-us/openinnovation.
About GE
GE (NYSE:GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best
technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in
energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering,
moving and curing the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For
more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.
Copyright Business Wire 2014