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
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For Information Contact:
Debbie Rothwell
Director of Marketing
Tech Briefs Media Group
212-490-3999, ext.5520
www.createthefuture2012.com
September 25, 2012
Sensor That Makes Smartphones “Smarter” Wins Global Design Contest
Contest Draws over 950 Innovative Product Ideas from Engineers and Students in 65 Countries
New York, NY – A new invention, Sensordrone, with the potential to dramatically extend the sensing capability of smartphones and tablets has been awarded the grand prize of $20,000 in the 2012 "Create the Future" Design Contest.
The Sensordrone Tricorder Platform for Consumers and Mobile Device Developers is a key fob-sized device that includes multiple environmental sensors that enable consumers to run a variety of Apps — from carbon monoxide monitoring to breath alcohol testing. For mobile device developers, it offers an open platform to create new low-cost sensor applications, both for entertainment and more serious applications such as medical sensors.
Sensordrone was among the more than 950 new product ideas submitted in the tenth annual design contest, which was established in 2002 to recognize and reward engineering innovations that benefit humanity, the environment, and the economy. This year’s contest was co-sponsored by Nordson EFD (www.nordsonefd.com), COMSOL (www.comsol.com), and Tech Briefs Media Group (www.techbriefsmedia.com).
Mark Wagner, president and founder of Sensorcon (Buffalo, NY), is part of the design team and sees the Sensordrone product as a first step in making sensors, meters, and instruments “Apps” instead of single purpose, bulky, expensive equipment.
After hearing the news that he was the grand prize winner of the Create the Future Design Contest, Mr. Wagner replied, “Winning the Create the Future Design Contest was far beyond my expectations and I am really honored by receiving this award. As the product is now moving from prototype to production, this will add an additional level of credibility.”
In addition to the grand prize of $20,000, first-place winners (of Hewlett-Packard workstations) were named in seven categories:
Consumer Products
LumEN: Luminescent Solar Concentrators for Sustainable On-Demand Electricity Production
Gianmarco Griffini
A portable device able to harvest solar energy and deliver electrical energy on-demand indoors or outdoors.
Electronics
Cloud and Smartphone Accelerator
James Awrach
A tool that enables faster local and globally distributed supercomputing at lower power and cost.
Machinery & Equipment
Thermal Stir Welding Process
Jeff Ding
A new solid-state welding process invented at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center that greatly improves weld quality and strength.
Medical – sponsored by Value Plastics, Inc. (a Nordson Company)
Prosthetic Leg Connector
Dave King
A device to aid those who wear prosthetic limbs that allows for much easier application and better comfort.
Safety & Security
LIFE PACK – Hypothermia Prevention Floatation Device
Dwight & Jane Cushman
A heat-generating floatation device resembling a backpack that offers protection in dangerously cold water.
Sustainable Technologies
Aquaback Water Purification System
E. Andrew Condon
A highly efficient, low cost, low maintenance, compact, modular vapor compression distiller to be used in a wide variety of water processing systems to clean incoming water or reclaim waste water.
Transportation
Re-Thinking Automotive TPMS
Ivan Batinic
A new approach to implementing vehicular Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) which is more economical and ecological than existing systems.
Finalists were selected by senior editors at Tech Briefs Media Group and judged by an independent panel of design engineers. Visitors to the contest Web site could vote on entries, with the 10 most popular designs awarded a Space Mouse PRO 3D mouse from 3Dconnexion. Popular design winners hailed from Canada, India, and Egypt, in addition to the U.S. For more information, visit www.createthefuture2012.com.
About COMSOL
COMSOL, Inc. (Burlington, MA) provides software solutions for multiphysics modeling and simulation. Its flagship product, COMSOL Multiphysics, lets engineers and scientists build simulations to verify and optimize their designs. Its unparalleled ability to include all relevant physical effects that exist in the real world opens up a wide array of modeling possibilities. COMSOL's customers apply this technology to make cars and aircraft safer and more energy efficient, enhance the reception of our cell phones, search for new energy sources, explore the universe, develop medical equipment enabling more accurate diagnoses, and educate the next generation of scientists.
www.comsol.com
About Nordson EFD
Nordson EFD designs and manufactures precision fluid dispensing systems for benchtop assembly processes and automated assembly lines. By enabling manufacturers to apply the same amount of adhesive, lubricant or other assembly fluid to every part, every time, EFD dispensing systems are helping companies in a wide variety of industries increase throughput, improve quality and lower their production costs. Other fluid management capabilities include high-quality syringe barrels and cartridges for packaging one- and two-component materials, and a wide variety of fittings, couplers and connectors for controlling fluid flow in medical, biopharmaceutical and industrial environments. The company is also a leading formulator of high-quality solder pastes for printing and dispensing applications in the electronics industry.
www.nordsonefd.com
About Tech Briefs Media Group
Tech Briefs Media Group is publisher of NASA Tech Briefs, the largest-circulation design-engineering magazine worldwide; Defense Tech Briefs, the largest-circulation engineering magazine for the mil/aero market; and Medical Design Briefs; the only medical publication targeted 100% to OEM product designers. Combined, these products reach over 600,000 engineers and managers worldwide. Additional publications include Photonics Tech Briefs, Imaging Technology, Motion Control and Automation Technology, RF & Microwave Technology, Embedded Technology, and Lighting Technology. The Tech Briefs Media Group product line has grown to include print/digital advertising, email/web products, virtual events, custom media, and content related advertising.
www.techbriefsmedia.com
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Rain water conservation method applicable to urban, suburban and rural residences. Water creates an environment for life to happen. Allowing for plants and trees to fruit making nourishment for other organisms. Water can make an environment more pleasing to be in. For example allowing the creation of gardens and grass lawns.
This system is consists of a fly wheel and a pulley connected together by a belt. As the fly wheel stores energy, it will increase the torque of motor. The fly wheel is powered by an electric motor. The wheel drives the pulley that is connected to an electric generator.
EnableRx – Enabling technologies for next generation medical diagnostics
Our Mission: EnableRx is an organization dedicated to creating innovative, low-cost, modular, scalable and interoperable telemedicine solutions that can be implemented across the planet and in space applications. Our goal is to provide medical diagnostic and device solutions that take advantage of the internet,
Innovation: To my knowledge no previous devices using acoustics have been manufactured to detect fires in homes just prior to become a full blaze. This device is unique because it will detect the fire just as is starting between walls and no visible or smell of smoke is present to warn of developed danger.
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