2024 Contest Now Accepting Entries!

Submit your best new product ideas for a chance at $25,000, other great prizes, and global recognition. If you already are registered, log in to access the entry form. Otherwise, click here to get started.

Help build a better tomorrow

Since Tech Briefs magazine launched the Create the Future Design contest in 2002 to recognize and reward engineering innovation, over 15,000 design ideas have been submitted by engineers, students, and entrepreneurs in more than 100 countries. Join the innovators who dared to dream big by entering your ideas today.

Read About Past Winners’ Success Stories

Special Report spotlights the eight top entries in 2023 as well as past winners whose ideas are now in the market, making a difference in the world.

Click here to read more

A ‘Create the Future’ Winner Featured on ‘Here’s an Idea’

Spinal cord injury affects 17,000 Americans and 700,000 people worldwide each year. A research team at NeuroPair, Inc. won the Grand Prize in the 2023 Create the Future Design Contest for a revolutionary approach to spinal cord repair. In this Here’s an Idea podcast episode, Dr. Johannes Dapprich, NeuroPair’s CEO and founder, discusses their groundbreaking approach that addresses a critical need in the medical field, offering a fast and minimally invasive solution to a long-standing problem.

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Thank you from our Sponsors

“At COMSOL, we are very excited to recognize innovators and their important work this year. We are grateful for the opportunity to support the Create the Future Design Contest, which is an excellent platform for designers to showcase their ideas and products in front of a worldwide audience. Best of luck to all participants!”

— Bernt Nilsson, Senior Vice President of Marketing, COMSOL, Inc.

“From our beginnings, Mouser has supported engineers, innovators and students. We are proud of our longstanding support for the Create the Future Design Contest and the many innovations it has inspired.”

— Kevin Hess, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Mouser Electronics

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Continously Variable Displacement Engine

Votes: 0
Views: 18659

Passenger car engines are sized to produce very high horsepower to suit the consumer’s demand for drivability and performance. Unfortunately, engines run most efficiently at high load conditions and very inefficiently at the low loads where they spend most of their time. This results in poor fuel economy and high CO2 emissions.

ESI’s continuously variable stroke engine expands the high efficiency operating region into the area where the engine operates during normal driving. This is accomplished using a unique patented crankshaft and connecting rod system that allows the distance the pistons travel to be adjusted on an immediate and continual basis while adjusting the combustion volume to maintain the same compression ratio. The engine is essentially being “sized” in real time to efficiently produce the necessary power and reduce many of the losses associated with a conventional drive train.

The engine eliminates the throttling loss as well as reduces the reciprocating friction losses by more than 50%, and maintains the full expansion ratio of full stroke at even low power settings.

GT Power simulation shows a 30% improvement in fuel consumption over the Federal test cycles compared to an equivalent displacement gasoline engine.

Video

  • Awards

  • 2014 Automotive/Transportation Category Winner
  • 2014 Top 100 Entries

Voting

Voting is closed!

  • ABOUT THE ENTRANT

  • Name:
    Steve Arnold
  • Type of entry:
    individual
  • Profession:
    Engineer/Designer
  • Number of times previously entering contest:
    1
  • Steve is inspired by:
    Higher Efficiency at Lower Cost
  • Software used for this entry:
    SolidWorks Simulation Professional, SolidWorks, StarCCM+, GT Power
  • Patent status:
    patented