TOP NEWS

U.S. Unveils Web Site Highlighting Government Challenge Prizes

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said today that it has unveiled a new, online web site which highlights prizes the U.S. government is offering to help solve the nation's "most pressing" challenges. According to U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra and U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, the new Challenge.gov site highlights over 35 challenges from more than 15 government agencies. Those challenges all offer cash prizes for solving ongoing national issues. Taking a clue for the popularity of prizes from DARPA's Grand Challenge to promote robot technology, and the X Prize Foundation's awards to spur technology development and the first commercial spaceflight vehicle, the site use social media to highlight such efforts as development of recipes for healthy school nutrition, recycling waste at college football games, and the Department of Energy's various green vehicle effort. The new site is run by the General Services Administration.