TSA Launches Crowd-Sourcing Contest to Speed up PreCheck and Security Checkpoint Lines

A security checkpoint at Terminal 7 at JFK

The Transportation Security Administration, the agency responsible for airport checkpoints in the United States, announced a competition to improve the efficiency of its PreCheck trusted traveler lines at the nation’s airports.

The program allows travelers to use the TSA’s PreCheck lanes.  PreCheck is a program that allows travelers to keep their shoes, belts, and light jackets on and leave laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags.

The agency is using InnoCentive, a crowd-sourcing ideation platform.  It is looking for what it calls a Next Generation Checkpoint Queue Design Model “to apply a scientific and simulation modeling approach to meet the dynamic screening environment.”  Entrants are asked to consider how to include standard, premium passenger, employee, flight crew, and wheelchair access to the security checkpoint in creating a more efficient design.

The TSA will pay up to $15,000 in awards for what it considers to be the best design.  One award will be no smaller than $5,000 and no award will be smaller than $2,500.  The agency is not asking entrants to transfer their intellectual property but entering the contest grants the TSA a royalty-free, perpetual, and non-exclusive license to use all information submitted, regardless of whether it is deemed a winning entry.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)