U students close to top prize
Posted on November 3rd, 2008 – 5:47 PMBy Thomas Lee
A group of University of Minnesota students are finalists in a national inventors contest.
Patrick Delaney, Matthew Beckler and Caleb Braff make up one of 12 teams of finalists competing for the $25,000 grand prize in the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation’s annual Collegiate Inventors Competition, sponsored this year by the Abbott Fund and the United States Patent and Trademark Organization. Winners will be announced November 19.
The local trio developed a low powered device that can provide many hours of light to an area without electricity.
The other finalists are:
Undergraduates
Joshua Lerman, Hanlin Wan, & Swarnali Sengupta, Johns Hopkins University (Advisor: Dale Needham)
ICU Mover Aid - A device that integrates Intensive Care Unit life support systems with a wheeled walker and wheelchair to give mobility to ICU patients, which may help speed recovery.
Joshua Liu, Gayathree Murugappan, Kevin Yeh, & Vicki Zhou, Johns Hopkins University (Advisor: Robert Allen)
SurgyPack - A Novel Means for Bowel Packing - A device that can be inserted by a surgeon to keep the patient’s intestines away from an abdominal surgery site.
Greg Schroll, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Advisor: Alexander Slocum)
Spherical Vehicle with Flywheel Momentum Storage for High Torque Capabilities - A spherical robot that uses a control moment gyroscope to store momentum for going up inclines and over obstacles.
Graduates
Curtis Chong, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (Advisor: Jun Liu)
Identification of the Antifungal Drug Itraconazole as an Antiangiogenic Agent Useful for Treating Cancer and Diabetic Retinopathy - Potential to treat cancer and common issues associated with diabetes with Itraconazole, a drug typically used to treat fungal infections.
Nathan Clack & Khalid Salaita, University of California at Berkeley (Advisor: Jay Groves)
Electrostatic Readout of Microarrays - Potential to detect DNA sequences and identify diseases and pathogens using a rapid test without need for high tech resources.
Heejin Lee, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Advisor: Michael Cima)
Drug Delivery Device for Bladder Disorders - A device that can be inserted nonsurgically into the bladder via the urethra, releasing a controlled dosage of a drug into the bladder through osmosis.
Harvey Liu, University of Texas at Dallas (Advisor: Kenneth Balkus, Jr.)
Smart Textiles for the Preservation of Tissues and Organs - A bandage that releases nitric oxide-a gas that promotes vasodilation in blood vessels to keep them relaxed and flexible-in a controlled manner as it degrades.
Timothy Lu, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Advisor: J.J. Collins)
Combating Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria and Bacterial Biofilms with Engineered Bacteriophage and Synthetic Gene Sensors - An engineered bacteriophage-a virus that infects bacteria-that works in conjunction with antibiotics, making them much more effective.
Parthasarathy Madurantakam, Virginia Commonwealth University (Advisor: Gary Bowlin)
Hemostatic Mineral Bandage - An ultra-light bandage that has the ability to stop high-pressure bleeding.
Brandon McNaughton & Paivo Kinnunen, University of Michigan (Advisor: Raoul Kopelman)
Rapid Detection and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing of Bacteria - A device capable of quickly detecting the presence of bacteria, allowing quicker administration of appropriate antibiotics.
Paul Podsiadlo, University of Michigan (Advisor: Nicholas Kotov)
Ultra-strong and Stiff, Optically Transparent Plastic Nanocomposite - An ultra-strong, transparent plastic sheet with properties approaching the values of steel and its alloys.
