AEM launches competition to address infrastructure problem

By |  January 19, 2016

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) launched a three-phased, crowdsourced competition that will award a total of $150,000 in prizes for innovative ideas to overhaul U.S. infrastructure.

Open to anyone, the Infrastructure Vision 2050 Challenge leverages the HeroX crowdsourcing model designed to bring about radical business, technological and social innovation that benefits local and global communities, inspires new industries and catalyzes new markets.

“The United States is the strongest and largest economy in the world and yet the overall quality of our infrastructure is falling dramatically behind our global competitors,” says Dennis Slater, AEM president. “AEM’s members thought it was time to break the cycle of patchwork fixes and deferred maintenance and lead the conversation in a different direction.

“We need to engage innovators who we haven’t heard from before and who have the ability to imagine how people, freight, energy and information will move in the country of tomorrow – even as far out as the year 2050,” Slater adds. “With the HeroX crowdsourcing model, we’re confident we can bring these solutions to life.”

According to HeroX CEO Christian Cotichini, HeroX was founded on the conviction that the crowd – everyday people with great ideas – can solve the world’s most pressing problems.

“The Infrastructure Vision 2050 Challenge moves the U.S. infrastructure conversation beyond traditional political channels for the first time and gives everyone affected by these issues a chance to voice their opinions and find solutions,” Cotichini says.

A judging panel and crowd voting will determine finalists and winners of the three-phased Infrastructure Vision 2050 Challenge.

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