Technology for Global Security announces launch of $1 million nuclear security grand challenge

PALO ALTO, APRIL 7, 2016 — As the technology community’s effort to contribute to the critical issue of nuclear security, Technology for Global Security (T4GS) today announced their intent to lead a 
one-year Nuclear Security Grand Challenge. This competition will bring together the most sophisticated problem-solvers to design the world’s best system for countries to confidentially verify that their nuclear weapons and materials are secure at all times. The power of the global technology community to create and openly verify solutions to hard security challenges cannot be matched by any one nation on their own — as the competitions for the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and the DARPA Grand Challenge focused on driverless cars have both demonstrated. 

“This is a massive impending problem for us and our children that will not be solved with citizen inaction.”
– Devabhaktuni Srikrishna (Co-Founder, T4GS) 

The Grand Challenge will begin on May 1st, 2016, and all final submissions to the competition will be due a year later on May 1st, 2​​017. The goal of T4GS is to raise $1 million in prize money for this 
game-changing competition, and the winning entries will be selected by an all-star judging panel of 5-7 international experts from the defense, science, technology, policy, and investment communities. Teams can make their submissions public (or not) until the date of submission, at which time they will become public for peer-review. T4GS will facilitate a series of conferences and workshops over the course of the year to make the way for outstanding submissions. Visit w​ww.nukechallenge.org f​or further information. 

The Chair of the Judging Committee will be Dr. William J. Perry, Director of the Preventive Defense Project, Stanford University. Dr. Perry was the 19th secretary of defense for the United States, serving from February 1994 to January 1997. Confirmed judges include: Marty E. Hellman, Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, and winner of the 2015 A.M. Turing Award for his role inventing public-key cryptography (with Whitfield Diffie); Dr. Roger Howsley, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the World Institute for Nuclear Security; KR Sridhar, the founder and CEO of Bloom Energy; and Bethany L. Goldblum, Ph.d. of  U.C. Berkeley’s School of Nuclear Engineering. These judges will be supported by teams of both strategic and technical advisors, chosen from the international technology, science, policy, and defense communities. 
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Technology for Global Security: Who We Are. I​nspired by the work of Dr. Bill Perry and former Secretary of State George Shultz, Technology for Global Security is a non-profit, non-partisan international network dedicated to building platforms and partnerships to bring game-changing applications of technology to global security. T4GS acts as an initiator and facilitator, working to design flexible international frameworks and programs. We engage cutting edge technologists and concerned people in the private sector, academia, and non-profit space to address the world’s most challenging security problems. While we regularly incorporate advice and technical guidance from government officials (current and former), we are not sponsored by any government or government agency.