NASA Seeks Innovative Ideas About Human Health Challenges
WASHINGTON -- NASA will host LAUNCH: Health, a global forum focusing on health issues, at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida
from Oct. 30-31. NASA, the U.S. Agency for International Development,
the U.S. Department of State, and NIKE are partnering on LAUNCH to
identify, showcase and support innovative approaches to
sustainability challenges through a series of forums.
LAUNCH forums focus on key areas, including water, air, food, and
energy. They provide a venue for evaluating creative ideas among
peers and collaborative, solution-driven discussions.
This second forum, LAUNCH: Health, will bring together entrepreneurs
from around the world who will be selected based on their innovative
approaches to addressing health issues. During the two-and-a-half day
forum, they will discuss their proposed solutions to health issues
with "council members" who represent business, policy, engineering,
science, communications and sustainability sectors. The sessions are
designed to identify challenges and discuss future opportunities for
entrepreneurs' innovations.
LAUNCH: Health seeks transformative innovations to improve health and
the quality of life on Earth, specifically for people in the first 20
years of life, in the following categories:
- Nutrition and food
- Physical activity
- Preventive health care
"NASA's interest in technology development and problem solving in the
area of human health issues makes hosting this discussion among
innovators and thought leaders a natural fit," NASA's Deputy
Administrator Lori Garver said. "Solutions to health issues here on
Earth have the potential to benefit space explorers of the future, as
well as humankind overall."
Problem solvers can submit their ideas through the InnoCentive
website, which allows NASA to collaborate with people throughout the
world who are interested in sustainability issues. Challenges are
posted online for which problem solvers can submit solutions.
Innovators can submit their proposals via the LAUNCH InnoCentive challenge at:
https://gw.innocentive.com/ar/
"NASA is enthusiastic about LAUNCH: Health and its focus on
identifying and accelerating innovative strategies to address human
health and performance in challenging environments," said Dr. Jeff
Davis, director of Space Life Sciences at NASA's Johnson Space Center
in Houston. "Innovative health solutions for diagnostic capability in
remote locations on Earth and in space require simple, rugged,
portable, devices with low power requirements. Forums such as Launch
allow NASA to contribute to and benefit from the ideas of many people."
"We see LAUNCH as a great opportunity to support innovators and
entrepreneurs who are helping provide sustainable solutions to
today's biggest development challenges," added Alex Dehgan, director
of USAID's Office of Science and Technology.
U.S. journalists are invited to attend the two-day forum. In addition
to regular Kennedy Space Center media credentials, reporters must
register in advance. To RSVP, reporters should contact David Steitz
at 202-358-1730 or david.steitz@nasa.gov by Sept. 24.
The forum will be streamed online on UStream, discussed through social
media outlets including Twitter, and featured on NASA's Buzzroom.
http://buzzroom.nasa.gov
To learn more about LAUNCH, visit:
http://www.launch.org
For information about NASA and its programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov
Source: NASA
