The United States Department of Energy (DOE) wants ideas on how to make smart buildings smarter and it’s using crowdsourcing to get them. Through a program called JUMP, innovative thinkers in the area of energy efficient building technologies are rewarded with idea development and prize money, and the first JUMP winners were announced in May 2016. JUMP, which stands for Join in the discussion, Unveil innovation, Motivate transformation and Promote technology-to-market, is an official DOE initiative aimed at advancing energy efficient building technologies. The program presents an opportunity for the public to present ideas, both big and small, for new energy efficient building technologies to private and public sector leaders in research and development. “JUMP is exactly the platform I was looking for to express my creativity and innovate collaboratively. Independent inventors often struggle to develop ideas that the market is ready to accept. Even then, it is difficult to strike the balance between protecting […]