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.
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“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/2011
2011
Weed trimmers cause more heartburn than any other garden tool. Depending upon centrifugal force (CF) to extend the filament when you bump the head on the ground, if you let the string get too short, there isn’t much mass for the CF to work on. Also, as dirt and grass gets into the head,
This is the creation and transmission of electricity via wireless, through the use of diesel and petrol powered cars to power up communities and industries. A lot of alternative ways of creating electrical energy have been created and most of them cost of a lot of money to set up and install,
In North America transportation accounts for 23% of the greenhouse gas emissions produced. To determine the amount of greenhouse gases produced, and to have a basis for comparison, a measurement known as “global warming potention” is used. This measure represents the amount of heat trapped by a greenhouse gas compared to carbon dioxide over a specific time interval.
To prevent delay in travel time, accidents, and destruction of road surfaces I recommend using heated roads. To achieve this I suggest using a conductive grid layed just under the roadway surface at the time of resurfacing or new construction. The grid would be heated by solar power collected every 5-10 miles of highway/roadway.
Access to affordable, renewable energy generation is necessary to drive sustainable development and global access to quality health care and education. In response to this demand, we have developed a novel solar thermal electricity and thermal power plant technology that has 30-50% lower lifecycle costs than currently available photovoltaic panels and diesel generators.
Supercritical combustion is a new concept of combustion technology aiming at reducing the fuel consumption and pollutant emission levels of a diesel engine. Supercritical combustion is a controlled detonation technique in which the fuel will be introduced into the combustion chamber in its supercritical state,
This invention pertains to the Automotive Engineering and Green Technologies.
Today, oil accounts for 96% of the fuel that powers our country's vehicular fleets. The old polluting conventional internal combustion piston engines in our cars work by burning gas and creating an explosion that forces the pistons down, consequently, emitting over a billion tons of Co2 into our atmosphere.
Imagine paraplegic patients with as severe injuries as complete paralysis of lower limbs to be able to independently stand up and walk both indoors and outdoors simultaneously exercising power assisted gait training.
According to the International Spinal Cord Society, over 2.6 million people in the world suffer from spinal cord injury (SCI).
A simple foot operated mechanism for controlling both throttle and brakes of a motor vehicle is proposed. The throttle is controlled by pivoting foot at the ankle. A locking mechanism is used, which provides rigid support for the driver's foot while operating the throttle. The brakes are applied by pushing the heel down to release the locking mechanism,
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