Since the inception of the Transportation Security Administration, the security checkpoint at airports within the United States has seen many changes and additions. From traditional metal detectors to full body scanners, the screening methods may have changed, but the basic layout of the checkpoint has remained the same.
The typical TSA checkpoint has one large queue for most passengers, possibly a line for Business and First Class passengers, and finally a line for Pre✓™ passengers. To help sort out the madness, the TSA is turning to the public to help redesign the security queue and is awarding a total of $15,000 to the best submissions.
The TSA has challenged the public on the site Innocentive, setting out its mission of redesigning the security checkpoint to better "meet the dynamic security screening environment" and streamline the increasing flow of Pre✓™ passengers. Pre✓™ allows "low-risk" passengers to keep their shoes, belts, and jackets on, as well as leave liquids and laptops in their bags. The TSA has been opening application centers across the country in hopes to increase the amount of passengers utilizing the Pre✓™ lanes.
The challenge asks for more than just your ideas on a napkin, though. Submissions must "provide a simulation modeling concept that can form the basis to plan, develop requirements, and design a queue appropriately." The TSA will use submitted models as a part of a location specific analysis, including "site specific requirements, peak and non-peak hours, flight schedules, and TSA staffing schedules." All ideas must be accompanied by evidence that the concept actually works
TSA checkpoints are more complex than just different lines for regular and Pre✓™ passengers, however. Submissions must, at minimum, include consideration for premier passengers, employees and flight crews, and wheelchair access. All of these separate and unique people to be screened present different challenges, but must work in the same space with the ultimate goal of expediting the Pre✓™ process.
"InnoCentive is for unique, defined challenges with a guaranteed cash reward for the successful solution," said Ross Feinstein, TSA Pres Secretary. "As such, the current challenge is a targeted request for inventive ideas that allows the agency to crowd source by engaging diverse and non-traditional groups of thinkers and solvers. This is becoming a widely accepted practice in federal government, as most successfully demonstrated and embraced by NASA, and is in line with the Administration’s Strategy for American Innovation."
Whether your idea involves a complex mathematical formula or a simple redesign of the layout, you have until August 15th to submit. Multiple submissions will take home some prize money, with no award being less than $2,500 of the full $15,000 up for grabs. One award will at least $5,000. At the time of publishing, 312 ideas have been submitted.
