Congratulations to Our 2025 Grand Prize and First Place Winners!
Imersiv, a breakthrough technology that improves audio performance by 100X compared to today’s very best audio equipment for applications ranging from sound engineering to space missions to medical imaging, was named the $25,000 grand prize winner at a live finalist round held November 7 in New York. Click here for the full list of winners. Also see the Top 100 highest scoring entries. Special thanks to our esteemed panel of judges.
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 16,000 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 in our 2026 contest opening March 1.
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
Project: "OptoVEE"
The Design and Engineering of a more efficient configuration for solar panel installations.
Project Overview
The Project proposes to utilize a "V" configuration mounting system to attach solar panels. By implementing reflective panels on both sides of the "V", in conjunction with each solar panel,
Traditional traffic lights provide limited information to drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists — primarily relying on red, yellow, and green indicators. As traffic becomes more complex and multi-modal, there is a growing need for dynamic, high-visibility displays that communicate richer information at intersections that could improve safety, particularly for vulnerable road users like pedestrians and bicyclists.
Traditional stop signs serve a vital function but operate with outdated rigidity. Regardless of traffic or time of day, drivers must stop — even when no other vehicles are present. This leads to wasted time, unnecessary emissions, fuel consumption, and avoidable frustration. Worse, static stop signs can be missed by inattentive drivers, raising the risk of accidents.
Synergy PAC — A Modular Redundant Process Automation Controller
The Synergy PAC is a next-generation process automation controller that blends the flexibility of a PAC with the robustness and fault tolerance of safety-critical systems. Engineered for high-reliability industrial and embedded environments, Synergy PAC introduces a modular control architecture based on triple-redundant processing, distributed analog I/O,
This proposal outlines a novel quantum-inspired AI chip architecture for implementing SGS.ai systems in hardware. The design leverages concepts from quantum mechanics (particularly entanglement and superposition) to create a stochastic, energy-efficient computing paradigm that bridges classical AI with quantum-inspired relational processing.
At its core,
Cotton harvesting is a crucial phase in the agricultural cycle, especially in cotton-producing countries like India. Traditionally, cotton picking is carried out manually by laborers, which poses several challenges. This task is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and susceptible to inconsistencies due to human fatigue, lack of training, and varying levels of attentiveness. As a result,
A personal flying vehicle without wings would greatly diminish the need for ground travel. Lifting, flight, and landing power could be supplied with multiple blades that circle the body of the craft between the outer perimeter and an enclosing cover. The angle of these blades could be continuously adjusted to accomplish changes in craft movement.
IVOSS (In-Vehicle Occupant Security System) is an intelligent, network-enabled video surveillance system designed to enhance vehicle security and protect its occupants. It combines real-time video capture, edge computing, secure data storage, and connectivity to a central monitoring centre, making it suitable for both private and commercial vehicle applications. Whether the vehicle is in motion or parked,
In Field Mode,
PET Bottle Filament Extruder is an innovative, sustainable solution designed to address the growing environmental issue of plastic waste, specifically focusing on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. With the increasing consumption of plastic and the inefficiency of large-scale recycling systems, especially in countries like India where over three million tons of PET waste are discarded annually,
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