Fusion Innovators Return to the Crowd for Insights Into Experimental Data

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Dec. 10, 2015) - Innovative clean tech company General Fusion has decided to come back to the wisdom of the crowd - this time in a search for significant patterns in data from its plasma experiments. Understanding the complex behaviour of plasma is a key to achieving fusion, a potential source of abundant, clean safe and affordable energy.

This is not the first time General Fusion, a leader in developing commercial fusion energy, has teamed up with InnoCentive of Waltham, MA and its roster of 355,000 registered "solvers" from nearly 200 countries, for a solution to a thorny high-tech problem. Earlier this year, General Fusion asked the solvers to design a seal for its fusion system that could withstand withering impacts, pressure, heat and rapid repetition.

Kirby Meacham, an MIT-trained mechanical engineer from Cleveland, OH with over 30 years of experience, came up with the winning "Metallic Pressure-Balanced Anvil Seal" design and claimed the $20,000 winner's prize. Running for 30 days this spring, the challenge attracted over 60 submissions from 17 different countries.

In this challenge, titled "Data-Driven Prediction of Plasma Performance", General Fusion is asking solvers to apply statistical techniques and computational tools to identify new patterns in hundreds of gigabytes of data from plasma experiments.

Plasma is the super-heated hydrogen gas that fuels General Fusion's Magnetic Target Fusion process. General Fusion is eager to see if the solvers can identify patterns in the data that will allow the company to further improve the quality and performance of its plasma.

"We will tap into the global wealth of knowledge in data mining for ideas from a wide range of other industries," says Brendan Cassidy, the company's crowdsourcing project leader.

"Participants do not need to be plasma physicists," says Mr. Cassidy. "But people who have a knack for finding statistical patterns and correlations in large amounts of complex data."

As with the first crowdsourcing project, there's prize money to be won - $20,000 for the best prediction methodology. To make the challenge even more interesting, General Fusion will post a weekly list of competitors' top scores, giving the solvers a target to surpass.

This challenge will again be hosted by InnoCentive, who have conducted similar successful challenges with NASA and Procter & Gamble, among others. All details of this challenge and eligibility requirements can be found on InnoCentive's website. The challenge opens today and runs until Mar 9, 2016.

To see the General Fusion Challenge: Data-Driven Prediction of Plasma Performance, visit the InnoCentive website at https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9933692.

To learn more about the plasma challenge, please visit the General Fusion blog: www.generalfusion.com/blog/category/blog/crowdsourcing-fusion-data-driven-prediction-of-plasma-performance.

About General Fusion:

General Fusion is developing the fastest, most practical, and lowest cost path to commercial fusion energy. The company was established in 2002 and is supported by a global syndicate of leading energy venture capital funds, industry leaders, and technology pioneers, including: Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, Bezos Expeditions, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Cenovus Energy, Growthworks, Braemar Energy Ventures, BDC, Entrepreneurs Fund, SET Ventures, Sustainable Development Technology Canada, and NRC-IRAP.

www.generalfusion.com

About InnoCentive:

InnoCentive is the global leader in crowdsourcing innovation solutions from the world's smartest people who compete to provide ideas and solutions to important business, social, policy, scientific and technical challenges. Our global network of millions of problem solvers, proven challenge methodology and cloud-based technology combine to help our clients transform their economics of innovation through rapid solution delivery and the development of sustainable open innovation programs. For more than a decade, leading organizations such as AARP Foundation, Air Force Research Labs, Booz Allen Hamilton, Cleveland Clinic, Eli Lilly & Company, EMC Corporation, NASA, Nature Publishing Group, Procter & Gamble, Scientific American, Syngenta, The Economist, Thomson Reuters and the U.S. EPA have partnered with InnoCentive to rapidly generate innovative new ideas and solve problems faster, more cost effectively and with less risk than ever before.

For more information, visit www.innocentive.com, email: info@innocentive.com, or call 1-855-CROWDNOW (U.S.) or +44 (0) 207 935 0827 (International).