One longstanding axiom in the engineering world is fast going the way of the buggy whip: the notion that “if a technology wasn’t invented by one of our engineers, we don’t want it.”

First, companies chiseled away at their aversion to “not invented here” technology by hiring outside engineering consultants or labs with special expertise. Then they began forging “technical alliances” with partner companies. Increasingly, even OEMs like Boeing, GM and Siemens routinely outsource vital engineering system design to suppliers.

In the last few years, however, companies have been taking the next step in their quest for a technical edge. They’re asking the whole world for help. Whether that involves seed money for R&D or fresh ideas to improve an existing design, more companies and engineer-entrepreneurs are looking for assistance from “the crowd.” In less than a decade, Web sites touting “crowdfunding” and “crowdsourcing,” such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Experiment, GrabCAD and many more, have sprung up to serve as valuable new incubators for technology.

In this two-part series, Engineering360 looks at the crowd, first as a source for capital and in this article as a source for ideas and inspiration.

Grabbing Design Ideas

You don’t have to convince the 2.7 million members of the GrabCAD Web site community that sharing ideas with the crowd makes sense. The platform supports webinars, tutorials, case studies and a free open-source library of more than 1.2 million CAD files that engineer members can use in their work. In fact, the site proved so popular with engineers that founder Hardi Meybaum was able to sell it in 2014 to 3D printer firm Stratasys for a reported $100 million.

The design challenge format gives sponsors diverse engineering solutions from all over the world, says Paulina Perepelkin of GrabCAD.“But beyond individual engineers sharing their designs, the GrabCAD platform serves as vehicle for companies looking for innovative design approaches to improve existing products or help shape new ones. The Web site has hosted about 100 challenges over the last four years, says Challenge program manager Paulina Perepelkin, with technologies as diverse as a kayak seat, pressure switch, throttle pedal, robot gripper and portable car trailer. Challenge sponsors include not just small firms but companies like Alcoa and General Electric, which itself set up a GE Open Innovation Web portal to herald its efforts in crowdsourcing.

Sponsors set specific design objectives for their challenge, and engineers submit CAD files, which are reviewed by a panel of judges from the sponsoring company and GrabCAD. Most challenges run four weeks, with engineers competing for prize money usually ranging from $5,000 to $10,000.

The challenges are a “wonderful way to get engineering solutions from a diverse community from all over the world,” says Perepelkin. “A sponsor in the automotive field may get a whole different approach from an engineer in the aerospace field.” Perepelkin says that sponsors who get the best results from challenges are the ones who stay the most engaged with participating engineers, promptly answering their questions and giving feedback on submitted designs.

In March, Alcoa named the winners of its Airplane Bearing Bracket Challenge, which attracted 316 entries, including a design from Ukrainian engineer Igor Nikol that won the $3,000 first prize. In naming the winners, Alcoa new product development engineer Wudhidham Prachumsri said, “With so many unique and interesting designs, picking the finalists, and ultimately the winners, for this challenge was not an easy task.” Before declaring the winners, Alcoa conducted lab testing on 10 finalist designs, as it sought the entry with the best strength-to-weight ratio.

The U.S. space agency NASA has used the GrabCAD platform for two challenges, including one for an International Space Station handrail clamp that attracted more than 450 entries. The reaction from a NASA judge to that challenge was that “we were overwhelmed with both the quantity and quality of the submissions. We were confident that we would benefit greatly from the experience that this broad community of talented designers brings to the table, but we were extremely impressed with the level of interaction, creativity, and iterations that took place within the community throughout the challenge process.”

NASA has used the GrabCAD challenge format twice, including a challenge that drew more than 450 entries for the design of a handrail clamp targeted for the International Space Station. Image source: NASAWhy do engineers devote their free time to participate in GrabCAD challenges? Some people do Sudoku puzzles or play bridge to keep their brains sharp, says Danish engineer Hans Kristian Bruun, whose full-time job involves designing machines for food processing firm Marel. Bruun prefers helping other engineers find answers to their design “riddles,” while earning some extra cash in the bargain. Says the engineer: “I know how annoying it can be to not find a satisfying solution. Sometimes a new pair of eyes can spot the solution in a heartbeat.”

Bruun figures it took him about 16 hours to fashion his first place design for a 3D-printable oxygen splitter that enables the independent control of oxygen flow rates for two patients who need to share one oxygen tank in low-resource settings. Besides the prize money, “you learn a lot from seeing other people’s designs,” says Bruun.

Ukrainian engineer Igor Nikol won first prize for this design in Alcoa’s recent GrabCAD challenge to develop a strong but lightweight airplane bearing bracket.While crowdsourcing can provide a fresh infusion of ideas, it isn’t a substitute for a company’s own engineering staff, emphasizes GrabCAD’s Perepelkin. “Ultimately, designs must go through many iterations before they become a final product,” she says, “and companies must put their own stamp of approval and branding on them.” Then there’s the question of manufacturability.

“My engineers and I spend hundreds of hours analyzing the merits of design solutions we get from crowdsourcing,” says Jason Murphy, director of Business Development for Microtechnologies, Inc., which has sponsored four GrabCAD challenges. But in the face of growing time-to-market pressures, the Florida contract manufacturer plans to ramp up its crowdsourcing activities. Murphy says that crowdsourcing can spur more innovation faster than relying solely on internal engineering. “I wish I had the resources to do 50 design challenges at once,” he says. “More often than not, the crowd can find the right solution.”

For more information

Kickstarter technology projects: https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/technology?ref=discover_index

Julio Terra video on design projects for Kickstarter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQBn6QzV0NM

Innovative Kickstarter technology projects: https://www.kickstarter.com/blog/the-most-innovative-kickstarter-projects

Voltera desktop circuit board prototype machine: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/voltera/voltera-your-circuit-board-prototyping-machine

Ossic 3D audio headphones on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/248983394/ossic-x-the-first-3d-audio-headphones-calibrated-t?ref=nav_search

Experiment crowdfunding Web site: https://experiment.com/discover

Video on noninvasive blood sugar monitoring: https://player.vimeo.com/video/93226407?autoplay=1&badge=0&byline=0&portrait=0&title=0

Video on tactile overlays for appliances: https://player.vimeo.com/video/137689702?autoplay=1&badge=0&byline=0&portrait=0&title=0

GrabCAD Challenges: https://grabcad.com/challenges/finished

ALCOA Bearing Bracket GrabCAD Challenge: https://grabcad.com/challenges/airplane-bearing-bracket-challenge

Oxygen Valve Splitter GrabCAD challenge: https://grabcad.com/challenges/oxygen-valve-splitter\

GE Open Innovation: http://www.ge.com/about-us/openinnovation