In an email to the Hopkins community, University President Ronald J. Daniels announced the launch of the Idea Lab, a webpage where students, faculty and staff, either as individuals or in groups, can propose, vote on and debate innovative suggestions about how to improve the University and its medical facilities.
The Idea Lab is part of the University’s Ten by Twenty initiative, which is designed to help the University achieve 10 specified goals by 2020. These goals are geared toward bringing the Hopkins community closer together, strengthening academics and connecting the University to Baltimore, the nation and the world.
“The Idea Lab will be home to crowdsourcing initiatives from all corners of Johns Hopkins, harnessing your remarkable talent and collaboration to strengthen our university and our impact in the world,” Daniels wrote. “Inspired by the Applied Physics Laboratory’s [APL] Ignition Grants, the Idea Lab reflects the way in which smart ideas travel across our university, growing and unleashing an avalanche of creativity.”
The APL’s Ignition Grants program, which was established in 2010, allows the Hopkins community to debate and vote on ideas for funding grants. Since 2010, the program has drawn 3,800 contributors who have produced more than 750 ideas.
To contribute to the Idea Lab initiative, members of the Hopkins community can log in to the webpage using their JHED IDs. The University has put two challenges on the webpage so far. The Ten by Twenty Challenge is designed to address the “One University” priority of the Ten by Twenty initiative. Students, faculty and staff are invited to suggest, comment on and vote on ideas that are designed to bring the University community closer together in terms of its education, research and service.
Participants can submit as many ideas or comments as they wish, but no ideas or comments can be submitted anonymously. The students, faculty and staff who suggest the most popular ideas could win up to $20,000 to implement them.
“Vote for the Idea Lab challenges that inspire you — and add your own ideas. Keep the conversation about our university going,” Daniels wrote.
The Ten By Twenty challenge, which opened on Tuesday, has so far produced one suggestion. Mistra Moazami, a manager and supervisor in the APL’s Information Technology (IT) Services Department, recommends that IT professionals within the Hopkins community collaborate to host an annual IT Exposition, offer a mentoring program and provide a program for staff in similar IT departments to shadow one another. The idea has garnered 19 votes. The challenge will end on April 21.
The other Idea Lab challenge is the Diversity Innovation Grant program, which funds initiatives that encourage diversity and inclusion across the Hopkins community. Students, faculty and staff from the University and the University’s medical facilities are invited to suggest, comment on and vote on ideas for the program. No ideas are currently posted. This challenge also opened on Tuesday and will end on April 21.
