Vote for Your Favorite Entries

The 2026 contest is now closed for submissions, but you can still vote for your favorites. Voting is open through September 7. Here’s how.

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.

Read About All the 2025 Winning Inventions

Special Report spotlights the eight amazing winners in 2025 as well as honorable mentions in each category, plus the top ten most popular entries as voted by our community.

Click here to read more

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

2007 Category Winners

CONSUMER PRODUCTS CATEGORY

LED Cocoon Tent
Stephen Boynton, Orem, UT
A solution to the issues of jammed, snagged, worn out zippers and low visibility inside a tent at night.

MACHINERY/EQUIPMENT CATEGORY

Cargo Management System
Jeremy Connell, Blacksburg, VA
Innovative truck bed design increases functionality while maintaining normal usage.

MEDICAL CATEGORY

3D Ultrasonic Neuronavigation System for Image-Guided Brain Surgery
Ajay Mahajan, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Murphysboro, IL
GPS-like system could help surgeons navigate through the brain to find and remove everything from tumors to bullet fragments easily, cheaply, and with hardly any cutting.

SAFETY & SECURITY CATEGORY

Personnel Beacon/Locator for Mine Workers
Joseph Hollmann, Spectral Biopsy, Kansas City, MO
Using ultrasonics and spread spectrum signaling, the PBL will help locate a trapped miner to within 10 feet.

SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY CATEGORY

LEDTRICITY™
Ted Bristow, Creative Electric, Kailua Kona, HI
Combining unique wiring circuits and state-of-the-art components, the LEDRICITY system enables the use of extremely long, inexpensive wires to illuminate hundreds of thousands of LEDs.

TRANSPORTATION CATEGORY

Internally Radiating Impulse Structure (IRIS) Engine
Corban Tillemann-Dick, Tendix LLC, Denver, CO
The IRIS design overcomes some of the shortcomings of modern engines and dramatically improves fuel efficiency by fundamentally changing the geometry of the combustion chamber.