Case Study: Lumina Foundation achieves expanded post-secondary access and sparks education innovation with Wazoku

Crowdsourcing with the right combination of platform, people and process

Lumina Foundation, a US-based private foundation focused on expanding access to and success in education beyond high school, partnered with InnoCentive to modernize the higher education–workforce interface. Through its "Quantified Work Challenge" Lumina asked solvers to propose ways to track "career health" using personal data to better prepare students for the future workplace.

The winning solution used social network analysis and keyword signals (similar to PageRank) to create an automatic, industry-agnostic skills assessment that identifies high performers and delivers personalized learning recommendations without adding operational burden. Several proposed solutions proved viable and, with exposure at The Economist’s Human Potential Forum, the challenge raised awareness of Lumina’s mission and mobilized innovators and entrepreneurs to pursue implementation.

Lumina Foundation

Kiko Suarez

Vice President,Communications & External Affairs