OREANDA-NEWS. GE Global Research, the technology development arm of the General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) today announced that it has won a prestigious Manufacturing Leadership 100 award in recognition of its work to build a new, cloud-based, software platform that enables a global community of experts to share ideas, design, and build complex cyber-physical systems securely on the Internet. GE researchers Joseph Salvo, Thomas Citriniti, and Benjamin Beckmann accepted the award on behalf of the company during last week’s Manufacturing Leadership Summit in Palm Beach. FL.

“The ML100 Awards honors breakthrough technologies shaping the future of manufacturing, and GE’s successful demonstration of a cloud-based crowdsourcing platform shows how complex product design and development can be taken to another level,” said Jeff Moad, Research Director, Manufacturing Executive/Frost & Sullivan. “In the quest to meet faster product cycle times, it’s platforms like GE’s that will help manufacturers work at the breakneck speeds required to compete effectively in the global marketplace.”

Development of the crowdsourcing software platform was a joint venture announced in April 2012 between GE, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The software is designed to allow DARPA to solicit and attract new ideas and concepts that could shape the design and manufacture of military vehicles and other complex defense systems. Scientists, engineers, and others can use the software to team-up on projects and freely submit, re-use, re-shape, or build upon designs that have been shared. As they evolve, designs can be tested and vetted by those in the crowd.

The new crowdsourcing platform is a key part of GE’s efforts to leverage the Industrial Internet to drive growth. It will connect data, design tools and simulations in a collaborative environment to accelerate the design of highly complex industrial systems.

“This is great recognition for the team and a testament to the work we’ve undertaken in an effort to make manufacturing smarter,” said Joseph Salvo, Manager of the Business Integration Technologies Lab at GE Global Research. “We’ve developed software that can virtually connect some of the best and brightest minds to tackle some of the most critically important manufacturing challenges. We’re seeing the evolution of manufacturing into a high-tech enterprise.”

In its ninth year, the ML100 Awards celebrates companies and individuals committed to breakthrough innovation that enables them to anticipate and quickly meet customer needs. Winning projects are chosen based on voting by a panel of expert judges. GE Global Research was honored in the “Innovative Enterprise Award” category in which winners showed “accelerated product and process innovation through collaboration with customers, partners, and internal stakeholders; the implementation of standard, measurable processes; and the deployment of advanced technologies…projects in this category will demonstrate positive impacts on operating results and process efficiencies,” according to contest criteria.