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
The XESS BP series of residence and business standby emergency power products store energy from any electric source and return the energy back to electric power when needed. The system is autonomous and comes complete with a leveling base and interconnect power adapter cable.
Transcutaneous magneto acoustic stimulation is the application of an ultrasonic beam from outside the skull impinging on brain structures inside the skull, where a transverse magnetic field is externally applied. By using charged ion movement in a magnetic field, stimulation by electronic impulse (due to the magnetic field) is 500x more effective than mechanical nerve stimulation alone.
What problem does your design idea solve?
On the modern battlefield, a critical dilemma exists: to see, one must emit energy with active radar, which instantly reveals one's position to be jammed or targeted. This makes surveillance a high-stakes gamble. Furthermore, the proliferation of stealth technology has rendered many conventional radar systems obsolete,
EcoSia® Inorganic Silicate Coating – Key Features & Advantages
EcoSia is a next-generation mineral paint engineered from potassium silicate, nanoscale ceramic fillers and functional additives. Unlike conventional acrylic or epoxy systems that form a plastic film, EcoSia reacts chemically with mineral or metal substrates to create a glass-ceramic network that is physically anchored (micro-silicification).
Harmful algal blooms (HABs) pose a significant threat to aquatic ecosystems, fisheries, and public health due to the excessive growth of toxin-producing algae driven by nutrient pollution. This project presents a novel, eco-friendly solution utilizing a consortium of algicidal bacteria, encapsulated in biodegradable polymeric beads, designed for targeted and sustained control of harmful algal blooms.
The Next-Gen Smart Wheelchair is an advanced mobility solution designed to empower individuals with physical disabilities, including visually impaired users. It integrates Braille-script controls for seamless navigation, ensuring inclusivity and ease of use. A GPS module with voice assistance enhances real-time location tracking, helping users navigate safely while allowing caregivers to monitor movement remotely.
We are AVA Venture Studio, and we are revolutionizing access to justice by leveraging the power of LawTech, a disruptive field that fuses intellectual property (IP) with cutting-edge Frontier Technologies (FT) like AI, Blockchain, NFTs, IoT, Avatars, VR/AR, and Cryptos. Our mission is to democratize and modernize legal services,
NanoArchitech's is a Climate Tech Award Winner in 2025 . The team has a proven innovation history of disaster preventative nanoceramic structural insulated panels which have withstood Two Category-5 hurricanes in the Caribbean.
Our proposal introduces a groundbreaking building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) system that seamlessly embeds perovskite solar cells (PSCs) onto layered nanocomposite panels.
We've developed our unique SRM as a prime-mover, converting DC electrical energy from the solar panels into mechanical energy. This mechanical energy is then transferred via direct coupling to an electrical generator which converts the mechanical energy into clean electric power free from harmonic distortion. Our SRM is efficient, compact and reliable.
As a lifelong reader, I was inspired by the book, “The Diamond Age” by Neal Stephenson. In the book, a very advanced AI embedded into an indestructible book helps a little girl overcome her circumstances. This is my conception of a similar idea using extrapolations of current technology in the fields of material science and very advanced manufacturing.
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