Announcing Our 2024 Finalists
Congratulations to the seven finalists who will be competing for the Grand Prize during a live presentation round in November:
AstroAnt: A Miniature Symbiotic Robotic Serving on the Outside Surfaces of Spacecraft, Rovers, and Landers for Inspection and Diagnostic Tasks
Cosmetic Silica Upcycled from Rice Husk as Natural Alternative to Microplastic Powders
Laser-Generated Anti-Icing and Anti-Fogging Transparent Materials
Multi-Modal Traffic Detection System
NETrolyze: A Novel Immunotherapy for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
RHOBARR Barrier Dispersions Platform
Thin-Film Thermoelectric Cooling Device
Watch this space for more announcements, including the Top 100 entries and Top Ten most popular.
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 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
GRAND PRIZE
NETrolyze: A Novel Immunotherapy for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Sam Currier and Priyan Weerrappuli, Extrinsic Immunity, West Bloomfield, MI, USA
AEROSPACE & DEFENSE CATEGORY
Laser-generated Anti-icing and Anti-fogging Transparent Materials
Chi Vinh Ngo and Chunlei Guo, AlchLight LLC, Rochester, NY, USA
Honorable Mention – Aerospace & Defense Category
Daltonomous – Cyber-physical Defense for Autonomous Systems
Alex Dalton, Pritam Dash and Prasanna Karthik, Daltonomous Inc., Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Boundary Layer Ingesting (BLI) Ducted Fan for Silent Flight
Feroz Ahmed, Ismaeel Zaman, Djamel Rezgui, and Mahdi Azarpeyvand, University of Bristol, Bristol, England
Safe2Ditch Technology
Jesse Midgett, Louis Glaab and Patricia Glaab, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, USA
STARS - A Deployable CubeSat Telescope Superstructure for Near Earth Asteroid Detection and Planetary Defense
Athip Thirupathi Raj, Adrien Bouskela, and Jekan Thangavelautham, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
AUTOMOTIVE/TRANSPORTATION CATEGORY
Multi-modal Traffic Detection System
Tyson Thomas and Aditya Kurupati, Transensys LLC, San Francisco, CA, USA
Honorable Mention – Automotive/Transportation Category
RDB55 Rim-driven Brushless Thruster for Underwater Applications
Mohamed Keshk, M-T-K, Cairo, Egypt
LiqFric – the Future of Friction – Time for a Model Change
Roman Milczarek, Niels Wittigniels, and Ute Wittig, LF GmbH & Co. KG, Leverkusen, Kazakhstan
Cost-effective High-performance Sustainable Lightweight Automotive Body Structures
Lewis Motion, WEAV3D Inc., Norcross, GA, USA
Real-time Non-surfactant Emulsion Fuel Supply System
Yahya Wira Jazair, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
ELECTRONICS CATEGORY
Thin-film Thermoelectric Cooling Device
Rama Venkatasubramanian, Luke Osborn, Jeff Maranchi, Meiyong Himmtann, Jonathan Pierce, Richard Ung, Katy Carneal, Robert Armiger, and Katie Kerrigan, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, MD, USA
Honorable Mention – Electronics Category
Semiconductor Factory in a Box
Ahmed Busnaina and Sudhir Jain, Nano OPS Inc., Burlington, MA, USA
Ultra-low Power Standoff Acoustic Leak Detection
Michael Hasselbeck, MicroPhonon, High Springs, FL, USA
The Safeguard Cane
Leong Kah Meng, Chan Bun Seng,Kang Eng Siew, Ngeu Chee Hau, and Ng Khai Le, Southern University College, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Dynamically Tunable RF Filters
Sam Belkin, CarboMed, San Diego, CA, USA
MANUFACTURING & MATERIALS CATEGORY
RHOBARR Barrier Dispersions Platform
Allyson Marianelli, Dow Inc., Collegeville, PA, USA
Honorable Mention – Manufacturing & Materials Category
MAD3: Software Toolkit for Robust Predictions of Plastic Anisotrophy in Metals
David Montes de Oca Zapiain and Hojun Lim, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, USA
A Major Breakthrough in Global Climate Goals
Jan Thoren, Xiomara Garcia, and Ron Suverkrop, NanoArchitech Inc., Gilroy, CA, USA
Controlled Polymer Ablation Powered by Vulcan: A Novel Pre-treatment Process for Adhesive Joining of Lightweight FRP Assemblies with a Quality Control System
Abhilasha Tomar, Plasma Bound, Dublin, Ireland
ACRYSOL RM735-BF: A Biocide-free and Solvent-Free Associative Rheology Modifier for the Waterborne Architectural Coatings Industry
John Rabasco, Sipei Zhang, Wenqin (Sunny) Wang, Jessica Kathy Seidman, Erica Frankel, Tara Conley, Edwin Baraniak, David Heinley, Gerry Valdez, and Kuldip Patel, Dow Inc., Collegeville, PA, USA
MEDICAL CATEGORY
A Smart Contact Lens for Glaucoma Management
Hamdi Torun, Arda Deniz Yalcinkaya, Gunhan Dundar, and Ozgur Kaya, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Honorable Mention – Medical Category
Vivally
Beth Labreche and Jill Schiaparelli, Avation Medical, St. Paul, MN, USA
Wearable, Non-invasive, Continuous Blood Pressure Monitors for Maternal Health
Xina Quan, Zhenan Bao, Keith Drake, Doug Halperin, Junjun Liu, Art Muir, Peter Noymer, Dave Richardson, Thomas Roxlo, and Will Sutherland, PyrAmes Inc., Cupertino, CA, USA
Minimally Invasive Tissue Sealing (MITS) Patch
Sarah Wu, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
Revolutionizing Gene Therapy Delivery with Polymeric Nanoparticles (PNPs) and the HIT SCAN™ Platform
Krista Smith, Andrea McCue, Tony Duong, Allison Secard, Katie Lianez, Gabe Meister, Emma Coughlin, and Russell Kittel, Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, OH, USA
ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION CATEGORY
Astroant: A Miniature Symbiotic Robot Serving on the Outside Surfaces of Spacecraft, Rovers, and Landers for Inspection and Diagnostic Tasks
Fangzheng Liu, Nathan Perry, Tobias Roeddiger, Sean Auffinger, Joseph Paradiso, and Ariel Ekblaw, MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA, USA
Honorable Mention – Robotics & Automation Category
Robotic Puller to Enhance Safety and Sustainability in Energy Transmission
Clyde Webster and Rohan Patel, Crest Robotics, Concord, Australia
Hybrid Multi-legged Reconfigurable Robot for Search and Rescue Operations
Alex Ramirez Serrano, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
Biorobotics
Erik Engeberg, Maohua Lin, and Santiago Guerra, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA
WaterStrider: A New 56-mg Controllable Microswimmer Driven by a New 1-mg Unimorph SMA-Based Actuator
Conor Trygstad, Washington State University, Maple Valley, WA, USA
SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY CATEGORY
Cosmetic Silica Upcycled from Rice Husk as a Natural Alternative to Microplastic Powders
Anne-Marie Vincent, Jean-Luc Garaud, Giada Tonet, and Cedric Toh, Dow Silicones Belgium SRL, Seneffe, Belgium
Honorable Mention – Sustainable Technology Category
Plastalyst
Robert Kunzmann and Tadashi Kubo, AC Biode, Hesperange, Luxembourg
Three-Dimensional Printing of Natural Wood
Md Shajedul Hoque Thakur, Muhammad M. Rahman, and Chen Shi, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
Electrolyzers that Live Outside and Underwater: A Path to Safe, Resilient, Gigawatt-scale Clean Hydrogen Production
Elias Greenbaum, GTA Inc., Dunwoody, GA, USA
Enhancing Wheat Seed Membranes via Low-Pressure-Vacuum Plasma Treatment for Salinity-Resilient Strategic Crop Cultivation
Abdel Fattah Elgendy, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
TOP TEN MOST POPULAR ENTRIES
Contemporary Dum Biryani Cooker
Manaswini K, Krethika K, and Saatvik K, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Puducherry, India
Intelligent Wheel Safety System: AI-Enhanced Tire Safety and Sustainability with Wheel Airbag Technology
Abdulkadir Baba Hassan, University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria
Portable Assisted Breathing System Schilling-Pack J-1
Jonar Cubillan, 3JC Technologies, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Biorobotics
Erik Engeberg, Maohua Lin, and Santiago Guerra, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA
Smart Canvas to Design an Optimum New Product Through Regenerative Process
Viswanath Nemani, Accenture, Sunnyvale, CA, USA
Digital Twin of 3D Printer
Pratik Mane and Yash Pawar, Sanjivani College of Engineering, Shrirampur, India
Crono: Digital Time-switch to Drive Automation
Harshal Lunawat, Sujit Sonawane, and Rushikesh Kulkarni, General Industrial Controls, Pune, India
"Rakshak" - An IoT Wearable Wild Animal Distraction Device
Kiran Wakchaure, Saksham Kulkarni, Sai Lokhande, Raj Gavhale, and Sai Bankar, Sanjivani University, Kopargaon, India
Biosensors Assisted Urban Waste Water Treatment Plan with Improved Efficiency
Muthushree R, Aakash M, and Gaayathri RC, Bannari Amman Insitute of Technology, Erode, India
Watch Tower: 360° Ground-to-Air Detection System
Yetkin Degirmenci, Montgomery, TX, USA
Astronauts in weightlessness, inside of a large pressurized habitat, can be self-propelled through the cabin air WITHOUT pushing off against any object. A slipper-like variant of swimfins displaces cabin air to push them forward on their own power (CTF 2023 Holmin).
A four wheel drive vehicle with an electric motor in each wheel that drives the car. Each person has a set of pedals that are connected to a generator that charges the batteries.
Introduction
Haul-e addresses the urgent need for sustainable electrification in the trucking industry, which has a significant carbon footprint. In India, road transport handles 60% of freight traffic, making the decarbonization of trucks, crucial. While electric trucks are a promising alternative, they face challenges like high battery costs,
The Neuraminidase Cleavage Scanner (NCS) is a device that use a technique of a matrix of thousands of Micro Ultraviolet Spectrometers to perform a counting of occurrences of specific shifts or changes, or sequence of changes in the abortion spectrum of each spectrometer pointing to a reactive sample,
There are many people who want to lose weight, such as older adults aged 50-60 and young mothers who gain weight due to a sedentary lifestyle or hormonal changes.
All these individuals desire to lose weight and have a healthy body, but unfortunately,
Reducing vehicle weight has been one of the hardest challenges for auto manufacturers to address, as the demand for increased comfort, safety, connectivity, interactivity, and natural/sustainable materials all to add vehicle curb weight, and high-performance lightweight materials are typically expensive, produce volumes too low for mass adoption,
Raintowers & Cloudships work together to prevent /combat wildfires, aid firefighters, save lives, fight drought, floods, famine, disease, replenish/protect water supply, aid farmers, relieve global suffering.
Reimagining water towers as strategically placed Raintowers equipped millions of gallons/water, UV sensors, GPS,
Innovation
The soft robotic jellyfish stands out due to its bioinspired design, mimicking the natural propulsion mechanisms of real jellyfish. This design utilizes submersible impellor pumps connected to each hydraulic network actuator group within the jellyfish, creating an efficient and novel propulsion system.
Elderly people are falling more frequently worldwide, especially those who are 60 years of age and beyond. One major factor that contributes to these falls is the lack of routine supervision provided to older individuals living alone.
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