10,000 Solutions encourages students to collaborate and develop an idea through online and interactive brainstorming. The winner of the contest will be awarded $10,000.
“There are many people in the world who can create change,” said Colby Jeffers, a Social Justice & Human Rights graduate student who submitted a solution to the contest website.
Jeffers’ idea is to create a discussion forum, Nights of Enlightenment, that will create a stronger Phoenix community.
“The goal is the solution itself,” said Jeffers. “More action on part of the Phoenix community.”
The format of the contest is similar to a government challenge platform, according to Erik Johnston, a member of the 10,000 Solutions research team.
The research team consisting of five ASU faculty members is funded by the National Science Foundation to investigate the changing relationship between individuals and the government at a university level, he said.
Johnston describes the research in three different stage. The first stage is participation in the community –- the ripple effect and how participation spreads.
The next step is trying to find the best solution and how they should count votes.
“Should experts vote, a system similar to Facebook ‘Like’? And does it lead to different results? Would more people submit solutions?” he asked.
The final stage involves looking into the future and figuring out how people can follow up with an idea.
Health sciences sophomore Maranda Thompson submitted a video of her solution, a student coalition to create change and build awareness around community service in the Phoenix area.
Though Thompson now lives in Tempe, she was inspired by her experience living in the Taylor Place dorms last year in the Pre-Health Central residential community.
“People were distant,” she said. “They would go to class and then go to their rooms. I want to improve the community aspect.”
The $10,000 prize is an incentive to the contest winner, but Thompson said that is not why she submitted her idea.
“It wasn’t to win,” she said, explaining that her main motivation was to get her solution out there, adding,”But it would be exciting.”
The project is one of the few that combine the academic world and the scientific, Johnston said.
“It’s a predominant ASU quality — blurring the boundaries of the academic world and the real world,” he said.
Solutions can be submitted on the 10,000 Solutions website through April 2012.
Contact the reporter at michelle.rivas@asu.edu
