NCHRP IDEA Program 1993 2010 Presentation to SCOR

NCHRP IDEA Program 1993 – 2010 Presentation to SCOR by Sandra Larson, P. E. December 10, 2010

IDEA Presentation Content Origins of IDEA program n NCHRP IDEA concept n Eligibility n Funding n Inventor Benefits n IDEA Metrics n Product Development n Successful IDEA project examples n Future/Lessons Learned n

Origins of IDEA First started 1988 by SHRP Exec Commneed for high-risk, high pay-off innovation n Popular program- passed to TRB / NCHRP in 1992. Support by Dean Carlson and Frank Francois n Funded jointly by FHWA / AASHTO n Fully funded by AASHTO in 1999 n

The NCHRP IDEA Concept n n Early-stage funding for promising but unproven innovations for highway systems Useful for state DOT research programs to have a place to send innovative, high risk proposals that otherwise could not be funded Innovations that leap to next-generation technologies and methods Investigator- driven, high risk- high pay-off research

Eligibility for IDEA Research Funding n Anyone is eligible n Investigators initiate proposals Eligible projects are of two types- n ¨ Type 1: Explorations that demonstrate the validity of unproven concepts ¨ Type 2: Development and testing of prototypes of proven concepts

Available Funding is up to $150 k / project n Cost sharing is highly encouraged n Direct cash contributions ¨ Indirect contributions and payment in kind ¨ Past 5 years, cost sharing value added 56% ¨ n 6 – 8 proposals are funded annually

Product Development IDEA #1 Concept IDEA Prototype #2 Evaluation Development Deployment Application TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

More than Monetary Benefits for Inventors n n n Partnership with potential users to test the innovation Assistance and peer review by an expert IDEA committee Assistance and peer review from project technical review panel Wide exposure through TRB's home page and poster sessions at TRB’s Annual Meeting Opportunity for further development through such programs as HFL, EAR, SBIR, TIG

IDEA Metrics 1993 - 2010 n n n 1500 proposals have been received From these, 150 awards have been made; Thus, only 10% are accepted for funding 133 projects have been completed 15% have graduated to commercialization and use in practice Another 15% have great promise and are close to the goal More details about these 39 successful projects in handouts

IDEA Successes

Hybrid Composite Beam (HCB) Lockport, IL High Road Bridge

HCB Testing at the AAR Transportation Technology Center

MMFX Steel Gundy County Iowa Bridge Deck

Pavement Quality Indicator PQI 380

Fixed Automated Spray Technology (FAST) Anti-Icing

Hycrete- Waterproof Concrete

Drive Cam- Incident Recorder

An example of what is currently cooking in the IDEA Program NCHRP IDEA Project 141 n Video

Robotic Safety Markers (Dancing Barrels) An interesting project that may be a reality in near future NCHRP-IDEA Project 90 Barrels video n “Goofs” n

IDEA- Looking to the Future Continue to look for ways to publicize the program and attract inventors to submit proposals n Continue to follow product development after project conclusion to document success stories n Continue to focus the program to meet the needs of the transportation industry n Continue to ask “Will we as the IDEA panel recognize what we are looking for? ” n

Lessons Learned 30 % of the completed IDEA projects are successful n Examples of IDEA successes n ¨ NDE/NDT conference ¨ Products we are using in our agencies