The Wavell Room writing competition is back!
After the success of our first writing competition last year, we’re back with another opportunity to test your brain power and the chance to win a £1,000, £500 or runner up prize (courtesy of our sponsor NSC). You can read about our last competition and the winning essays here.
The Wavell Room is all about divergence, innovation and disruption. This year we want to frame the writing competition around a subject which could benefit from the collective intelligence of the Wavell Room audience.
And so here it is:
‘Human / Machine Teams; how can emerging concepts & technology disrupt the Defence ‘status quo’ and enhance operational capability?’
As technology rapidly advances, with Artificial intelligence and Machine learning making leaps forward at an increasing tempo, humans will soon find themselves working with machines, rather than just using machines. This will be true across all domains. Technology alone will not prevail. The military force which is best able to combine technology, concepts and the will to fight, is the one which will be the most successful. We’re looking for essays that explore how we exploit emerging technology and concepts, in new and innovative ways.
Rules:
- 2,500 words (+/- 10%).
- To be considered, the essay must stay within the bounds of the question provided, enormous flexibility is offered, please engage with Wavell Room to clarify any titles.
- Non-original content must be referenced throughout the essay. Numerical referencing is preferred, with hyperlinks where available. Only open source material can be referred to.
- Each essay must have a bibliography at the end of the essay.
- The individual submitting the essay (claiming it is theirs) must be the originator of the content and if plagiarism is found, the submission will be disregarded with the entrant disqualified from the competition.
- Previously written essays (by the entrant) can be submitted, as long as they have not been entered into a competition, for publication in an academic journal or published anywhere else.
- The submission must be submitted as a .doc file.
- Entrees are welcome from serving and non-serving individuals. Additionally, entrees can be submitted from individuals outside the UK, but this may have a yet undetermined impact on the payment of prize money, such as deductions for foreign currency transactions and the need to verify identity.
- The Wavell Room reserve the right to update the rules at any time and their judgement in regard of prizewinners will be final.
Dates
We will accept entries until 31 April 2019 (we have extended the deadline). We aim to announce our winner before the end of May 2019, however, the Wavell Room is staffed by a volunteer force so it is possible that this may be a bit later. Keep an eye on the website and on our social media for updates. If you would like to receive email updates, complete the form attached to this page. Judges: We are lucky to have a prestigious group who have agreed to pick the winning essay, they include:
Chief of the Defence Staff: General Sir Nicholas Carter, The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Centre for Historical Analysis and Research (CHACR), Kings College London (KCL), Comdt Joint Services Command and Staff Centre (JSCSC)
Essay titles
We have a short list of essay titles below, which are designed to prompt, and offer ideas for you to take away, develop yourself and submit back. They are not prescriptive and designed to stimulate thinking.
