RSSWendy Schmidt, wife of Google CEO, funds $1.4M X PRIZE Challenge for oil spill cleanup
By Tim Conneally | Published July 29, 2010, 7:32 PM
At the National Press Club in Washington, DC Thursday, the X PRIZE Foundation launched its $1.4 million oil spill clean-up competition called the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge. The Foundation, which currently also has a $10 million challenge to develop a 100 mile per gallon car, first announced this competition at an independently organized TED event in June dedicated to the Deepwater Horizon oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
But it was not announced at that time who the benefactor of the prize would be. Today, it was announced that the funds for the challenge have been put up by none other than Wendy Schmidt, wife of Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and president of the Schmidt Family Foundation.
The challenge will reward three grants totaling $1.4 million to entrepreneurs, engineers, or scientists who can develop and deploy an efficient way to capture crude oil from the surface of the ocean.
Schmidt describes the reason for the contribution in very familiar terms, "When I think about it, I realize we are looking at an old operating system: last century's energy infrastructure coupled with an inadequate and out-of-date understanding of the human relationship with natural resources. We need Version 2.0. The sooner the better."
The first phase of the challenge will take place between August 2010 and April 2011, where teams from around the world can submit their proposals to a panel of judges who will determine each submission's technical and commercial viability, its impact on the environment, its scalability and cost, and the degree to which it improves current technologies.
The judges will choose 10 submissions, and the teams who developed them will have to demonstrate their proofs of concept in a head to head competition at the National Oil Spill Response Research and Renewable Energy Test Facility (OHSMETT) in New Jersey.
Currently, there are three prizes. A $1 million Grand Purse, $300,000 second place, and $100,000 third place. The X PRIZE Foundation is hoping to attract more philanthropists and venture capitalists to contribute and improve the prize. On the group's Oil Cleanup Challenge site it is also accepting donations from anyone with an interest in advancing the cleanup innovation.
"This taps into the grassroots, entrepreneurial spirit that made this country so great," said Philippe Cousteau, CEO of EarthEcho International and grandson of legendary oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau. "I think we owe a healthy, robust environment not only to ourselves, but especially to future generations."
She's doing a good job.
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|I just love the way these self-righteous types come out of the wood work when it's their coastline that is threatened. Where were they all when thousands of miles of Asian coastlines where hit with a spill thousands of people got sick and died!?!
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|hi, really a very great article, full of helpful information.
Great Work.
Danny S.
Free SMS
Score: -3
|Truth be told the Dutch already have it figured out. But for some reason we always reject their help. They had equipment that could have contain it at the source. We did not want their help
for the Valdez spill either. What is so wrong with the Dutch that we decline their help twice?
http://www.articlesbase....are-review-2130892.html
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|"What is so wrong with the Dutch that we decline their help twice?"
We dislike people who are intolerant of other people's cultures...and the Dutch. ;)
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|Smart. Get individuals to spend their own money in research and development which involves risk and then pick the best and make $$$ at a cost of just $1 million
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|What "contest" does not involve risk, may I ask? . If they win, they win, if not, they lose. Either way, the "house" wins. Sounds pretty standard fare to me... You new to this "gambling" thing?
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|What "contest" does not involve risk, may I ask?
Do you really want an answer to this? I sincerely doubt it.
To use one of the infamous snide greets, have a nice day!
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|Lol, doesn't this prize money actually come from Eric?
She gets a monthly allowance...
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|Too bad neither the government or the oil industry are interested in anyone's ideas for cleaning up their mess. They rejected any and all help from private individuals, other nations, etc. Concealing the full scale of their criminality is more important, I suppose.
Score: -1
|The s*** family seems obsessed by reducing the mess created by the oil industry.
Reducing the oil mess in the ocean.
Reducing the oil pollution in the air (with a car that uses a bit less gas)
It would have been better for the s***s to donate money to get people to stop using oil altogether, and use money to encourage people to use different forms of transport that don't use fossil fuels at all.
Score: -4
|If you do not like the way they are going about it, why don't *you* pick up where you feel they left off?
Oh...that's right. They have money. I guess that makes it OK to point your finger at them and tell them how badly *you* think they are spending it...
Of course, I suppose it would also be OK for them to roll their eyes at you and, if they haven't already had their fill of people who know "better" than them today, tell you to **** off.
*laughing* I can just see it...
IT Advisor:
"You shouldn't try to help fund the cleanup! Forget about it! You should do what *I* think is best!"
Yeah..I bet they don't hear that hundreds of times a day...
Score: -3
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