The focus of the Challenge is how to educate illiterate populations about the importance of purifying drinking water.
InnoCentive’s Global Solver Network will help suggest solutions to this challenge and the winner will receive US$5000.
The ITT Watermark Ideation Challenge is open to participants from any discipline or background, and runs until 27 April 2011. The winning solution will be announced in May 2011.
“The Ideation Challenge will harness the creative brain power of people all over the world, to examine the global water challenge from a new angle,” said Anthonie Lombard, vice president and director of global engineering, ITT Residential & Commercial Water.
“I’m encouraged to see that this critical water issue will be given the power of a global community of problem solvers, all highly motivated to make a difference,” said Dwayne Spradlin, InnoCentive’s president and CEO.
Bjorn von Euler, Director Corporate Philanthropy with ITT, said: “When we created this partnership with InnoCentive, we thought, let’s try to see if brilliant people outside our industry can find ways to inspire and educate families and communities in critical areas around the world to understand the importance of drinking water.”
Founded by the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, InnoCentive is an independent crowd sourcing network that harnesses the brainpower of individuals with varied professional backgrounds and work experience to help find solutions to challenges in disciplines such as business and entrepreneurship, chemistry, engineering/design, food/agriculture, maths and many other subjects.