GW Professor Zoe Szajnfarber's research group seeks to understand the fundamental dynamics of innovation in the government space and defense activities, as a basis for decision making. Current projects include mapping the innovation ecosystem at NASA, ESA and the DoD, modeling the  interactions between organizational and technical systems architecture over time, and valuing alternative technology investment strategies and their impact on individual preference structures. In this interview she talks about how crowdsourcing challenges can bring value and how to identify that value based on the type of problem you want to solve.