The 2025 Contest is Now Open for Entries!
Submit your best new product ideas in any of seven categories for a chance at $25,000 USD and other great prizes. Here’s how 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 All the 2024 Winning Inventions
Special Report spotlights the eight amazing winners in 2024 as well as honorable mentions in each category, plus the top ten most popular entries as voted by our community.
Click here to read moreA ‘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.
Listen nowThank 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
contest
Contest
If there's thrust here then, it should boost these.
This isn't so much a design than it is a question: it is entered in this contest so it can be examined and rejoined by individuals skilled in the arts.
Consider: the Laval – a tube having a converging section, a throat, and a diverging section. At Laval inlet,
Coastal cities continue to face flooding, and one solution for sustainable development is buoyancy. Floating on the surface above the rising tides, vessels have inherent seismic resistance and the lack of costly deep foundations. Modular construction of large structures also lend themselves to ease of deployment, especially in response to disasters.
2021 Entries
>> All
>> Aerospace & Defense
>> Automotive/Transportation
>> Consumer Product Design
>> Electronics/Sensors/IoT
>> Manufacturing/Robotics/Automation
>> Medical
>> Sustainable Technologies/Future Energy
2021 Participants
2021 Results
The following entries received the highest overall scores from the panel of judges.
They are listed in alphabetical order by title.
2D Materials Origami: The Tiniest Nanochips for Future Computation
3D Printing Boosts SiC Inverter Performance
Aerodynamic Optimization of Wind Turbines
Afreecar E-kit: Provide Sustainable and Affordable Mobility and Power for All the World's People
AI Powered Mobile Jammer Mounted Drone
Air-Coupled Ultrasonic Transduction Inspection System
Aira FreePower - Advanced Wireless Power
Apparatus and Method for Donning Hygienic Gloves
Apparatus for Concentrating Parasitized Red Cells for Testing
AscenZ Friction & Brake - Benchmark Friction Composites
Auto H20’s Automatic Portable Automatic Water Bottle Filling Station
Automatically Detecting & Wiping Stolen Mobile Devices in Under 10 Seconds!
Bio-inspired Multi-functional Ceramics for Aerospace Applications
Breakthrough Polyurethane for Comfort Applications
Camera Array for Multi-Spectral Imaging (CAMSI)
Chemical Identification by Magneto-Elastic Sensing (ChIMES)
Cosmic Scale: Bringing Muography to Industry
CraioVault™ (Ultra Cold Vaccine Delivery Vault)
Creating a Better Tomorrow by Repurposing Coal: Converting Coal & Waste into Renewable Hydrogen
D3 - Control and Deorbit Spacecraft without Rockets
Dynamic Hydrogel Used to Make ‘Soft Robot’ Components and Lego-like Building Blocks
Electric Aircraft Propulsion System
Electronics-Free Soft Walking Robot
ENDELIS: A Medical Diagnostic Tool from Space for Effective Cardiovascular Risk Stratification
Exercise Treadmill with User Biometrics and Child Safety Lock System
First-in-Class Therapeutic Pain Drug Designed from Proteins
Float Thermometer - Baby Bottle Application
Gigabot X: Recycling Plastic via Pellet 3D Printing
Gravity-compensated Robotic Arm
Hairpin Motor Using Aluminum Hairpins
Halo Speculum -- Invented By a Female for the Female
HCCI Fickett-Jacobs Cycle Double Acting Internal PDE
hDrop - Electrolytes, Hydration, and Temperature Tracker
High Efficiency Cascaded Airfoil Wind Turbine (CAWT)
High Performance Silicone-based Material, Enabling Breakthrough Foldable Consumer Display Devices
High Strength Keyed Bricks With Recycled Plastic to Build Anywhere
High-Speed Communication in Space
How to Keep Drones Flying When a Motor Fails, without GPS
India's First Smart Self Sterilizing N100 Face Mask for Covid-19 Protection
Keeping Cool - Thermal Management for High Performance Computing
MagShark - Using Augmented Reality to Revitalize Early STEM Education
Multifunctional Bionanocomposite Fruit Coatings
NDB Universal Lifelong Self-charging Green Battery
Next Generation Cell Separation and Recovery
Next Generation Green Lubricant Technology
PakFVAD: Totally Implantable Integrated Aortic-Turbine Venous-Assist Device for Fontan Patients
POPSafe™ Tracheostomy Tube Sets - A Life Saving Device
Proactive Wireless Security by Endpoint Security Inc
Rare Earth Metal Recovery using Ionic Liquids
Recycling of Lithium Ion Electrodes
Replaceable Valve Assembly (For IC Engines)
SelectFlex 3.0 Keyless – The Next Generation of the World’s Only Arch Control Insole
Self Destructing Plastics via Embedded Enzymes
SERS-Suspension Energy Recovery System
Smart Baby Sleep Monitor and Alert System
'Smart' Wearable Sensor for Continuous Monitoring of Wound Healing
Solar Power-Assisted EV Battery Balancing System
SueChef - Autonomous Kitchen Robot - Freezer to Oven Remote Cooking
The Next Generation of Eye Exams for the USA and ROW
Tracking 3D Motion with Transparent Imaging Stack
Transformational New Long Life Nanocarbon-Based Dental Implants
UNIQUE Treatment for Vertebral Fractures, Osteoporosis and Cancer
VForce® Morphing Wind Turbine Blades
Vision X - Assistive Smart Glass for Blind People
{ctf_votes:2021}
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GRAND PRIZE
RepelWrap – a Nature-inspired Surface Technology for Repelling Contamination
Leyla Soleymani and Tohid Didar, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada
AEROSPACE & DEFENSE CATEGORY
Niobium Connector (NiobiCon™)
Harvey Hack, James Windgassen, Keith Johanns, Megan Owens, Carrie Wheeler, Vincent Iorio, Tim Patterson, and David Knuteson, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Annapolis, MD, USA
Honorable Mention – Aerospace & Defense Category
Full Multimedia Autonomous System
Scott Kempshall, HyALTA Aeronautics, Saint Petersburg, FL, USA
DeepDroneID: Remote Drone Identification and Payload Monitoring System
Mohamed Ismail, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Braunschweig, Germany
Silver Lock Fastener
Harold Hess, Igor Komsitsky, Deeptesh Selvaraj, and Zoltan Szekely, Enduralock, LLC, Lenexa, KS, USA
Dynamic Obstacle Avoidance for Quadrotors with Event Cameras
Davide Falanga, Kevin Kleber, and Davide Scaramuzza, University of Zurich, Switzerland
AUTOMOTIVE/TRANSPORTATION CATEGORY
Low Noise Laser for LiDAR
John Jost, Nikolay Pavlov, Grigorii Likhachev, Tobias Kippenberg, and Pierre-Yves Cattin, MicroRsystems SA, Lausanne, Switzerland
Honorable Mention – Automotive/Transportation Category
Dual Radial Gap Electric Motor Vehicle Conversion Kit
Bryan Prucher, Lektromotiv Inc., Clarkston, MI, USA
Second generation RADIALcvt (Continuously Variable Transmission)
Jan Naude, Johannesburg, South Africa
The Future of the Four Stroke Internal Combustion Engine
Jeff England, Gary Cotton, and Robert McLean, Grace Capital Partners, LLC, Little Rock, AR, USA
CITS Combustion Engine Technology
Basil Van Rooyen, CITS Engineering PL, St. Ives, New South Wales, Australia
CONSUMER PRODUCTS CATEGORY
Ring – Prosthetic Leg Grows Along with Children
Snezana Jeremic, Komiric , Serbia
Honorable Mention – Consumer Products Category
Pronto Bottle
Shannon Gilleland, Form-i-Baby Pty Ltd, Pheasant Creek, Australia
(private entry)
SelectFlex® the World’s Only Dynamic Arch Control Insole
Peter Tarlton, Barry Renow, and Joe Huston, ADDG, New Castle, NH, USA
Virtual Smart White Cane for Obstacle Detection
Pnina Ari-Gur and Justin Rittenhouse, Western Michigan University; Julia Strauss and Anna Puca, Kalamazoo Area Mathematics & Science Center, Kalamazoo, MI, USA
Airtomo Air Purification System
Kevin Chiam, Imperial College London, Singapore
ELECTRONICS/SENSORS/IOT CATEGORY
PrintIC - Flexible and Recyclable Integrated Circuits and Systems
Giorgio Dell'Erba, Andrea Perinot, and Paolo Colpani, FLEEP Technologies S.r.l., Milan, Italy
Honorable Mention – Electronics/Sensors/IoT Category
Securing IoT
Page Heller, Endpoint Security Inc., College Station, TX, USA
First Responder Sensor Array System
Phillip Tinsley, Brad Jefferson, and Mat Beyus, Venti LLC, New Bern, NC, USA
Battery Health Sentry
Dong Ding, Sergiy Sazhin, Eric Dufek, and Kevin Gering, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID, USA
ULTRARAM™: Compound Semiconductor Universal Memory
Manus Hayne, Peter Hodgson, Dom Lane and Ofogh Tizno, Lancaster University, Lancaster, Great Britain
MANUFACTURING/ROBOTICS/AUTOMATION CATEGORY
Radibond – Superior Assembly of Lightweight Materials for Transportation
Espen Hvidsten Dahl and Mikkel Kongsfelt, RadiSurf ApS, Aarhus, Denmark
Honorable Mention – Manufacturing/Robotics/Automation Category
The Future for Helmets is Now - Introducing Fluid Displacement Technology
Jason Kirshon and Donald DeVito II, KIRSH Helmets Inc., Schenectady, NY, USA
An Automated Process for Apparel Manufacturing
Brett Stern, Formafit, Portland, OR, USA
3D Printing of High-Performance Ti Alloys
Duyao Zhang, Dong Qiu, and Mark Easton, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Three-Dimensional Printing of Multicomponent Glasses
Lorenzo Barbera, David G. Moore, Kunal Masania, and Andre R. Studart, ETHZ, Zurich, Switzerland
MEDICAL CATEGORY
A Chip Off the Old Box: Painless Defibrillation
Mehdi Razavi, Mathews John, Allison Post, and Aydin Babakhani, Texas Heart Institute, Houston, TX, USA
Honorable Mention – Medical Category
Wearable Continuous Blood Pressure Monitors
Xina Quan, PyrAmes, Cupertino, CA, USA
Earlier Lung Cancer Screening Using the Exoutcancer System
Sumita T. Jonak, Brian D'Souza, and Abhinav Chandra, UCLA Anderson, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Customizable Tissue Engineering Patches for Accelerated Wound Healing
Samarender Nagam Hanumantharao, Carolynn Que, and Smitha Rao, Michigan Tech University, Houghton, MI, USA
Glucowaves for Convenient Pain-free Blood Glucose Level Monitoring
Ala Eldin Omer, George Shaker, and Safieddin Safavi-Naeini, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGIES/FUTURE ENERGY CATEGORY
Flash Graphene
Duy X. Luong, Ksenia V. Bets, Wala Ali Algozeeb, Michael G. Stanford, Carter Kittrell, Weiyin Chen, Rodrigo V. Salvatierra, Muqing Ren, Emily A. McHugh, Paul A. Advincula, Zhe Wang, Mahesh Bhatt, Hua Guo, Vladimir Mancevski, Rouzbeh Shahsavari, Boris I. Yakobson, and James M. Tour, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
Honorable Mention – Sustainable Technologies/Future Energy Category
Thermionic Wave Generator (TWG)
John Read, Devin Vollmer, and Todd Mitchell, Space Charge LLC, San Diego, CA, USA
TriboFuge – Water from Air Harvester
Philip Hardcastle, AquaFuge, New South Wales, Australia
Reducing Climate Change with Waste to Energy
PD Madden, Eco Energy International LLC, Tustin, CA, USA
Transformational Li-ion Batteries with ≥10x Longer Life/Safer than Current LIBs
Orlando Auciello, Elida I de Obaldia, and Jean F. Veyan, Original Biomedical Implants, Dallas, TX, USA
TOP TEN MOST POPULAR ENTRIES
The Portable Tree - Atmosphere Transformation Project
Jonar Cubillan, Patrick Morton, Richard Márquez, Mercylino Quinto, Humberto Linares, and Yanmiver Jiménez, 3JC Technologies, San Sebastian, Venezuela
ISOPOD
Nebin Asharaf, Nitya Jois, and Sachin Bhat, 10BY10, Bangalore, India
Simultaneous Positive Pressure Ventil-Aid System
Cristobal Galjuf, Giusseppe Bianco, Richard Zicarelli, Dimitris Pavlidis, John Volakis, and Andres Tremante, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA
Seas – Seamless Employee Attendance & Safety
Nebin Asharaf, Nitya Jois, and Sachin Bhat, 10BY10, Bangalore, India
ZERO X – Zero Exposure Mobile Swab Collection Kiosk for Pandemic
Nebin Asharaf, Nitya Jois, and Sachin Bhat, 10BY10, Bangalore, India
Collision Alert Technology for Scooters (CATS)
Adult leads: Dan Champoux and Autumn Mahoney; Youth: Honor Hutchison, Elias Cengeri, Julia Mahoney, Keira Mahoney, Evan Welch, Mihir Shah, Lucas Chin, Kate Kanoya, Avani Nandalur, Reyna Nandalur , and Julia Xiao (Hao), FIRST LEGO League Robotics Team #3646: Great Engineering Kids Of Tomorrow (G.E.K.O.T), East Hills Middle School, Bloomfield Twp., MI, USA
Idea for Future Aircraft Power Plant for Fuel Saving
R. Dandekar, Pune, India
Soleria Safety Cylinder
Sheila Ray, SBRAnesthesia Associates, Harrisburg, MO, USA
SPOTS: Stay Safe
Akshay Andhare and Tushar Shinde, Mindpod Technologies Pvt Ltd, Pune, India
Solving the Disposable Plastics Problem
Thomas Brady, PTI, Holland, OH, USA
The Major Propulsion Problems:
internal-combustion-engine [ICE] and turbojet-engines pollute
ICE are fuel-inefficient in most operating regimes where they spend most of their time, resulting in high amounts of pollutants and CO2 emissions
turbo-engines are noisy, fuel-hungry, expensive with limited applications
most municipal/crop/forest waste is buried/dumped in oceans which is polluting.
The problem that diabetics and persons with urinary incontinence suffer:
Anyone with diabetes or urinary incontinence knows how terrible and embarrassing it is to have to go to the bathroom multiple times due to uncontrollable urination. Millions of diabetics suffer this everyday while they are at workplace, school or any public place.
Stemming from the lack of facilities during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis in our country, we aimed to design a ventilator that’s easy and cheap to setup, easy to maintain, and can support as many people as possible. We, as a team, took this initiative back in May, when we first designed it using a manual hand driven system.
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