A CROWDSOURCING PLATFORM OFFERING REAL-TIME CHALLENGES FOR STUDENTS: HOW TO MOVE BEYOND DESIGN CHALLENGES

Crowdsourcing is increasingly used to tap into the innovative potential of a crowd. Oftentimes, this co-creation is conducted using virtual spaces, with an approach of a contest. In this study, the emphasis is on understanding how to integrate crowdsourcing contests into universities and their students, in order for them to provide value for all of the participants. Furthermore, the specific platform that is presented has been successfully used for design and packaging contests, with the goal of extending it now to engineering challenges. With background information from crowdsourcing contests in general and with lessons learned from existing platforms, this paper presents findings and discussions about a web-based survey addressing how to move beyond design challenges for achieving better university-industry collaboration using crowdsourcing.