The NEW College Try

Abstract

This article profiles the winners of the 2004 Collegiate Inventors Competition and their inventions. On October 2, 2004, an exceptional group of young people gathered at the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio. Working solo or in teams of two or three, the 19 entrants represented five undergraduate and nine graduate projects. Those final 14 were the survivors of a process that began with the solicitation of applications from 800 colleges and universities worldwide, resulting in 120 submissions. Judging was based on the invention's originality as well as on its potential value and usefulness. Undergraduate Prize Winner: Wei Gu, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Invention: A convenient system for controlling the flow of fluids through microscopically thin channels--based on a 30-year-old gadget for outputting in Braille. Application: Safer, faster testing of new drug compounds. Graduate Prize Winners: Jwa-Min Nam, University of California Berkeley, and Colby Shad Thaxton, Northwestern University. Invention: A new method for detecting and identifying trace amounts of biological molecules in complex samples. Applications: Medical testing; forensics; biological weapons detection; biochemical analysis. Grand Prize Winner: Ozgur Sahin, Stanford University. Invention: A new type of atomic-force microscope sensitive to the music of molecular interactions can study the physical properties of materials in exquisite detail. Applications: Research into new materials; detection of biological molecules.