Dream It. Build It. Change the World.
The 2026 Create the Future Design Contest is now open for entries! Submit your game-changing new product ideas for a chance at the $25,000 grand prize. $50,000 in total prize value. Get started today.
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 moreThank 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
This study presents a groundbreaking Dual Adaptive Propeller System designed to overcome the inherent limitations of current propulsion technologies in UAM and VTOL applications through innovative thrust modulation and aerodynamic control mechanisms.
As urban air mobility (UAM) and vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) systems evolve, propulsion technologies must adapt to the demands of compact designs, agile maneuverability,
The Air Motor, whose main component is the Aerodynamic Airfoil Turbine, is the first machine capable of generating mechanical energy from the thermal energy of the environment in a self-sustained movement, which means energy efficiency over 100%. This power generation doesn’t produce any environmental pollution and doesn’t use fossil fuels at all,
MODRIVE is an innovative electric motor designed to eliminate permanent magnets and mechanical gearboxes. It achieves high torque at low rotational speeds, making it ideal for electric vehicles, wind turbines, and direct-drive generators.
The design includes a circular stator housing 12 transformer-based modules.
Our objective is to prepare eco-friendly pants by degrading plastics, which are a potential threat to our environment as it takes 500-1000 or more years to decompose naturally. We offer an eco-friendly approach where the microorganism Ideonella sakaiensis sakaiensis breaks Plastics into simpler compounds such as Ethylene Glycol and Terephthalic acid under aseptic conditions.
This is the interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary approach to solving a much larger problem, a paradox of scientific theory and observation. The paradox is classical electromagnetics and thermodynamics versus quantum theory (mechanics). Is radio frequency to microwave radiation acting on diazoluminomelanin reactions as time-varying fields, through secondary heating, or as quanta being specifically absorbed?
EduBot is an affordable, AI-powered learning robot that delivers personalized education to students in low-income or rural communities without internet access.
It acts like a mini teacher, understanding each student’s learning pace and customizing lessons in subjects like math, science, and language.
Built using offline AI models, a touchscreen or voice interface, and solar charging,
Conventional aerosol cans are disposable, gas-propelled, and pose significant environmental and safety concerns. They typically contain around 70% liquefied gas and only 30% active product. The gas is flammable, pressurized, and can be harmful to both users and the atmosphere. Our innovation introduces a refillable, propellant-free spray system that ensures users pay only for the actual product,
The proposed solution addresses a fundamental challenge for Hyperloop systems: maintaining reliable, high-speed wireless communication inside vacuum-sealed steel tubes. External wireless signals are completely blocked in these environments, isolating the pod from outside networks. This isolation poses risks to operational safety, passenger experience, and system automation, especially as pods travel at speeds exceeding 1,000 km/h,
On paper, power towers look great. So why are they shutting down?
One reason is current solar power tower heliostat fields are limited to 1500°F maximum because of flat heliostats. This new adaptive optic heliostat innovation creates higher temperatures 2500°F, which now allows for greater industrial applications, such as using the sun to manufacture cement, steel, fuel,
Current methods for in-situ planetary surface exploration — whether on the Moon, Mars, or beyond — still rely primarily on single, high-cost platforms such as rovers and landers. Rovers, while mobile, are constrained by limited power and the need to avoid hazards, resulting in extremely slow movement (typically a few centimeters per second). As a result,
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