Collegiate Inventors Awarded Over $90,000 In Prizes By Lemelson-MIT Program

By Megan (Weyrauch) Johnson on April 29, 2016

The Lemelson-MIT Program recently announced the winners of the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, a nationwide search for the most inventive college students, according to this press release. Each winning team of undergraduates received $10,000 and each graduate student winner received $15,000, with total of $90,000 in prizes awarded to collegiate inventors.

Winners were selected from a diverse and highly-competitive applicant pool of students from 77 colleges and universities across the U.S. A national collegiate invention prize program and supported by The Lemelson Foundation, the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize serves as a catalyst for burgeoning young inventors.

https://www.invent4free.com

The program includes four different categories:

The “Cure it!” Lemelson-MIT Student Prize: Rewarding students working on technology-based inventions that can improve health care.

The “Drive it!” Lemelson-MIT Student Prize: Rewarding students working on technology-based inventions that can improve transportation.

The “Eat it!” Lemelson-MIT Student Prize: Rewarding students working on technology-based inventions that can improve food and agriculture.

The “Use it!” Lemelson-MIT Student Prize: Rewarding students working on technology-based inventions that can improve consumer devices.

According to the release, Lemelson-MIT Student Prize applicants were evaluated by screening committees with expertise in the invention categories as well as a national judging panel of industry leaders, who also select the annual $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize winner.

Candidates were assessed on breadth and depth of inventiveness and creativity, potential for societal benefit and economic commercial success, community and environmental systems impact, and experience as a role model for youth.

2016 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize Winners

“Cure it!”

Graduate winner: Catalin Voss — Standford University

Prize: $15,000

Voss developed an emotional learning aid for children with autism called the Autism Glass Project, based on smart glasses like Google Glass. An individual with autism puts on the glasses and can recognize emotions in people’s faces using an artificial intelligence system; then, the glasses give intelligent social cues to the child right then and there via a heads-up display or audio.

Undergraduate team winner: Jason Kang, Katherine Jin and Kevin Tyan — Columbia University

Prize: $10,000

Kang, Jin and Tyan formed a startup called Kinnos Inc., to develop Highlight, an easy-to-use powdered additive that can be mixed into disinfectant solutions to make them colorized and highly visible. This invention allows global healthcare workers to fully cover contaminated surfaces with disinfectant solutions, improving the process of infectious disease decontamination.

“Drive it!”

Graduate winner: Dan Dorsch — Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Prize: $15,000

Dorsch invented the world’s first lightweight clutchless transmission for high-performance hybrid vehicles, designed to match the performance of existing supercars while achieving higher efficiency. Dorsch has partnered with a leading performance car company to refine his technology for real-world applications, believing it will be straighforward for other automotive manufacturers to adapt his technology to their vehicles.

“Eat it!”

Graduate winner: Heather Hava — University of Colorado Boulder

Prize: $15,000

Hava developed robots that can garden in space and patented a geodesic dome structure for on-Earth applications including use for disaster relief, sustainable housing and horticulture. Hava’s invention, SmartPot (SPOT), can be teleoperated to help astronauts grow fruits and vegetables during space exploration missions. The software to process data from SPOT is AgQ, developed by Hava, which will provide feedback to the robot for proper plant care.

Undergraduate team winner: Kale Rogers, Michael Farid, Braden Knight and Luke Schlueter — Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Prize: $10,000

These four mechanical engineering students created Spyce Kitchen, the world’s first completely automated restaurant. This restaurant includes a refrigerator, dishwasher, stovetop and chef all-in-one, allowing it to cook and serve meals without human involvement. According to the release, the team hopes to revolutionize the fast food industry with this invention, which operates with extremely low overhead while serving high-quality, nutritious meals.

“Use it!” 

Graduate winner: Achuta Kadambi — Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Prize: $15,000

Kadambi designed ultrafast optics to film light in motion, called “Nanophotography,” and an imaging system that relates nearly imperceptible rotations of light with 3D models of the world, called “Polarized 3D.” These inventions have applications that span medical imaging, robotic navigation and virtual reality. Undergraduate team winners: Thomas Pryor and Navid Azodi — University of Washington
Prize: $10,000

This team created SignAloud, a pair of gloves that contain an array of sensors that measure hand position and movement, sending sensor data via Bluetooth for translation from American Sign Language to spoken words instantly. These lightweight gloves are compact and worn on the hands, but can be used as an everyday accessory similar to contact lenses or hearing aids.

Interested in apply for the 2017 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize? Find more information here. Interested sponsors looking to support the execution of the program and scaling into new categories should visit this site.

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