Congratulations to Our 2024 Grand Prize and First Place Winners!

NETrolyze, a novel immunotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), was named the $25,000 grand prize winner at a live finalist round held November 15 in New York. The first-in-class therapeutic injectable gel prevents the spread of TNBC, one of the most aggressive cancer types, enabling patients to avoid toxic chemotherapy and expensive treatments – potentially transforming their lives. Click here for the full list of 2024 winners. Also see the Top 100 highest scoring entries.

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 more

A ‘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 now

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

Follow Create the Future

Floor Surface Safety Lamp

Votes: 0
Views: 5588

Floor Surface Safety Lamp

Walking and stumbling in the dark bedroom at night is a major cause of accidents in the home. Stepping on the dog, the child’s toy, forgotten shoes, or slipping on a slippery surface will tumble both the old and the young. That’s what nightlights are for but the plug-in nightlight lights illuminate one side of the bed and is a big flare of light on the wall.

The Floor Surface Lamp patented under the bed nightlight solves this problem by lighting the floor of the entire bedroom while keeping the bedroom dark. Now there is light to the bathroom from any side of the bed. There is light for the children coming in at 2 AM because of a bad dream.

Floor Surface Lamp works great in children’s bedrooms too. Now there is no scary monster under the bed. Now mother can come in to check on kids in a dark room with only light on the floor.

Light emitting diodes mounted on the outer edge of this thin disk provide the light at night. The cost for electricity is in the order of 50¢
per year. There are no plug-in wall transformers. The efficient power supply is self contained. The lamp is always cool. Expected life time for the LEDs is over ten years.

The lamp is a – plug in and forget – appliance. There are no switches. You can’t see the light during the day. You know it is on at night when your eyes become accustom to the dark. Then the floor is lit but the room is dark.

The market potential for Floor Surface Lamp is very large because it solves a very real problem in the home in a manner far better than the old plug-in nightlight. The appealing shape, design, and color should attract the modern buyer even though it is not seen once placed under the bed. Its high efficiency will appeal to the energy efficient thinking public.

The manufacturing of this lamp would include two molded plastic parts, a few electrical parts on a printed circuit board, and the LEDs set in the rim. In large volume $3 per unit seems plausible. The circuit is similar to that used in new LED lamps that replace incandescent lamps except that the current draw from the power line is only 0.01 Amp. or 0.33 Watts.

This Floor Surface Lamp will improve the night safety in many homes by illuminating the floor of any room where it is placed.

  • Awards

  • 2012 Top 100 Entries

Voting

Voting is closed!

  • ABOUT THE ENTRANT

  • Name:
    Peter Lefferson P.e.
  • Type of entry:
    individual
  • Number of times previously entering contest:
    3
  • Peter's favorite design and analysis tools:
    Orcad
    MathCad
    TurboCad
    xcel
  • For managing CAD data Peter's company uses:
    Good file magement
  • Peter's hobbies and activities:
    helping inventors prototype and ham radio
  • Peter belongs to these online communities:
    LinkedIn
  • Peter is inspired by:
    Solving a problem and filling a need.
  • Software used for this entry:
    Orcad
  • Patent status:
    patented