American Scientist

There is no shortage of challenging engineering problems, and many of the more pressing of them these days have to do with the development of new and renewable energy sources or with the more efficient and environmentally friendly use of old ones. But solving these and related problems can be maddeningly difficult, for the world of energy production, transmission, storage and consumption is complex, and its component parts are systemically interrelated. This is also the case with non-energy related problems ranging from providing clean drinking water worldwide to carrying out efficient space exploration. In order to encourage research and development work on tough problems of all kinds, an increasing variety of incentives has come to be employed, including formal challenges and lucrative prizes. But meeting a challenge and walking away with a prize can be only the beginning of what might prove to be a long and convoluted engineering development project.