Help TSA Design a Better Checkpoint and Win $15,000

Sick of arriving at the airport three hours before your flight leaves, just so you can barely make it through the security checkpoint in time? Then do something about it! The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is asking the public to help redesign their queues, and they’re offering rewards of up to $15,000 total for the best ideas.

Specifically, the challenge cites the remodel as a means of addressing the growing number of TSA Pre✓™ passengers, and that the Next Generation Checkpoint Queue Design Model will “apply a scientific and simulation modeling approach to meet queue design and configuration needs of the dynamic security screening environment with TSA Pre✓™.”

The same model, however, should be versatile enough to apply to the TSA’s other queues, including but not limited to Standard, Premier Passengers (1st class, business class, frequent flier, etc.), Employee and Flight Crews, and PWD (wheelchair access).

TSA Press Secretary, Ross Feinstein, said the challenge “is about leveraging innovation and out-of-the-box thinking to find solutions to TSA’s most challenging issues.”

Those interested in submitting a proposal for the TSA’s Next Generation Queue Design and Model can do so through InnoCentive, a crowdsourcing site designed to fund a variety of research and development problems. As of Monday afternoon, over 600 proposals had been submitted. One prize of at least $5,000 will be awarded for the best idea, while other top contenders will be awarded at least $2,500.

Feinstein said the use of InnoCentive allows the TSA to engage “diverse and non-traditional groups of thinkers and solvers.” He went on to point out that the crowdsourcing has been “successfully demonstrated and embraced” in federal government, specifically citing NASA.

Entries must provide a simulation modeling concept and evidence that their queue design could actually work. This means the concept should be able to adapt to things such as peak and non-peak hours, staff scheduling and flight schedules.

The deadline for submissions is Aug. 15.

[Photo: iStock]