Crowdsourcing for Engineering Systems Design: Theoretical and Experimental Studies

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The research objective of this award is to establish how the design of a crowdsourcing tournament affects its outcomes in engineering systems design. The objective will be achieved by extending game-theoretic models from contest theory, and performing lab experiments based on behavioral game theory. The research activities include a) analyzing the effects of different tournament design options on the outcomes for individuals, pre-defined teams, and self-organized teams, b) comparing the predictions from analytical game theoretic models with observed contestant behaviors within experimental settings. The overall expected outcome include a theoretical framework and lab experiments to facilitate tournament design. Specific outcomes include non-cooperative games of crowdsourcing tournaments considering unique aspects of engineering systems design, and lab experiments to identify the limits of theoretical models and to guide further theoretical developments.The results of this research hold promise to enable systems engineers and managers to systematically design crowdsourcing tournaments, a new and growing venue for product design, by considering different tournament design options and their potential impacts on the outcomes. The proposed research will advance the state of the art in engineering design involving strategic decisions, where only analytical models of games have been used. The outcomes of the research are being integrated into graduate and undergraduate courses. The activities are fostering collaboration among researchers in engineering design and experimental economics, and providing broader exposure to the graduate students. The lab experiments, software tools, and data generated as a part of this project are being disseminated through Purdue University Research Repository (PURR), journal publications and conference presentations.