GigTank Joins Forces with X PRIZE Foundation
Chattanooga, Tenn – February 28, 2012 – Chattanooga announced today that the X PRIZE Foundation, the leading nonprofit organization solving the world's Grand Challenges by creating and managing large-scale, global incentivized competitions, is working with GigTank™, a 100-day incubator/accelerator in Chattanooga, TN. The program aims to develop high-bandwidth applications using the community-wide 1-gigabit-per-second internet with up to $300,000 in cash prizes and seed capital available to participants this summer.
The X PRIZE Foundation has earned its reputation by incentivizing innovators and entrepreneurs to dream big in pursuit of breakthrough technologies with global impact for the benefit of humanity. Large-scale impact is exactly what GigTank™ creators have in mind as they seek to attract students and entrepreneurs to compete in their own prize competition in Chattanooga, TN, the home of the world’s fastest internet.
“The X PRIZE model inspired our vision to organize local, regional and national sponsors to launch GigTank,” said Jack Studer, a partner at Chattanooga’s Lamp Post Group, a privately funded venture incubator and a GigTank™ partner. “It’s fitting that the X PRIZE Foundation is helping with judging as we seek to leverage our community’s unique fiber infrastructure to develop next generation uses for gigabit-capable internet.”
GigTank™ is the host of two competitions this summer geared towards bringing the right talent to Chattanooga to “imagine the future of the Internet when bandwidth is no longer a barrier.”
“Gigabit-capable bandwidth holds the same potential that electricity did in its early stages,” said the effort’s managing director John Wilson. “At first the uses seemed limited, but once the power of electricity was harnessed the world changed forever. We're offering students and startups a chance to build and test ultra-high-speed applications in a community-wide sandbox today.”
Also announced today are several distinguished judges including senior executives from the X PRIZE Foundation, IDEO, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco and IBM as well as several prominent tech entrepreneurs.
For more information or to apply for GigTank™, visit www.theGigTank.com
GigTank™ Judges:
Meghan Murphy – Senior Director, Alliances, X PRIZE Foundation; Jonathan Taplin - Director, Annenberg Innovation Lab, USC; Jason Collins, VP of Emerging Technology and Innovation, Alcatel-Lucent; Colin Raney - IDEO Design Director and head of Boston studio, Michael Burcham - CEO, The Entrepreneur Center; Sid Chambless - Managing Partner, TNInvestco; Paul Conley - Managing Director, Paladin Capital Group; David Cummings - Founder/CEO of Pardot; Steve Dauphin - General Partner, Murphree Venture Partners; Jay Faires - Founder of JFE, Mammoth Records, Hi Frequency Marketing and former president of Lionsgate Music; Michael McChesney - Founding partner of Five Paces Ventures.
About The Gig CityTM:
Chattanooga, Tenn., recently hailed by the New York Times for having America’s fastest Internet (up to 1 gigabit per second available to more than 150,000 homes and businesses in a 600 square mile area) and by Outside Magazine as “The Best Town Ever,” combines advanced technology infrastructure with a thriving cosmopolitan atmosphere that’s just minutes from mountains, rivers and other outdoor playgrounds. In recent years, Chattanooga’s signature lifestyle and focus on environmental stewardship has helped attract $4 billion in foreign direct investment including a Volkswagen auto assembly plant. Now, Chattanooga is putting the finishing touches on the largest and most advanced Smart Grid in the nation and using its gigabit network to pioneer a template for what other cities could become when bandwidth is no longer a barrier.
ABOUT X PRIZE FOUNDATION
Founded in 1995, the X PRIZE Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is the leading organization solving the world’s Grand Challenges by creating and managing large-scale, high-profile, incentivized prize competitions that stimulate investment in research and development worth far more than the prize itself. The organization motivates and inspires brilliant innovators from all disciplines to leverage their intellectual and financial capital for the benefit of humanity. The X PRIZE Foundation conducts competitions in four Prize Groups: Education & Global Development; Energy & Environment; Life Sciences; and Exploration. Prizes won include the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private, suborbital space flight; the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE for creating safe, affordable, production-capable vehicles that exceed 100 MPGe (energy equivalent); the $2 million Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X CHALLENGE for advanced rocket development; and the $1.4 million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE for highly effective, ocean surface oil spill cleanup methods. Active prizes include the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, the $10 million Archon Genomics X PRIZE presented by Medco, and the $10 million Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE. For more information, go to www.xprize.org.
3/5/2012