Past Collegiate Inventors Competition Winners
Learn about the student inventors who have excelled in the Collegiate Inventors Competition®. You can search our past competition winners by name, year or university.
Ultra-strong and Stiff, Optically Transparent Plastic Nanocomposites
When Paul Podsiadlo looks at natural materials such as seashells, bones, or teeth, he sees amazing structures. He notes how these seemingly simple yet microscopically quite complex structures have evolved over millions of years into some of the toughest composites, and as he looks at them, he tries to understand their structure and how they function with the hope of mimicking their properties for the development of the next generation of advanced materials. It is this same thoughtful approach to all problems in his research that encourages Podsiadlo and that makes his research exciting for him.
For his University of Michigan research, Podsiadlo knew he wanted to create high performance materials by using nanotechnology as his tool. His innovation is "plastic steel," a transparent plastic sheet that is ultra strong, with remarkable properties approaching the values of steel and its alloys. To create his composite plastic, Podsiadlo begins with nanoscale materials, actually clay nanotubes that individually are extremely strong. One of his challenges was determining how to transfer the nanoscale mechanical properties to a macroscale end product. Podsiadlo uses a layer-by-layer assembly technique to alternately deposit nanometer-thin layers of clay nanosheets and polymer, ending up with a product comprised of hundreds of layers. The structure of the final product resembles that found in the seashell: the nacre.
Podsiadlo looks forward to the broad impact his innovation could have, especially in the military, aviation, medical, and energy sectors. He envisions his structure being used for anything from body armor to biomedical coatings. In fact, research for the project was initially funded by the U.S. Defense Department and the National Institutes of Health.
Podsiadlo, 30, was born in a small village in Poland where he always enjoyed the sciences and math in school, often helping his teacher grade math exams. At 17, he came to the United States and graduated from Bridgman High School in Bridgman, Michigan in 1997. As he studied at a local community college, he found that his most interesting classes were in chemistry. In fact, he remembers an experience in the lab making a sample of common acetylsalicylic acid, also known as aspirin, as a particularly positive moment that piqued his interest in the topic. Unsure whether his English skills would allow him to succeed at a school such as the University of Michigan, Podsiadlo took a chance and applied and was thrilled when he was accepted.
In 2002, Podsiadlo received his bachelor's in chemical engineering, in 2006, he received his master's, and in 2008, he received his Ph.D. During his doctoral research in 2006, Podsiadlo was granted a five-year fellowship from the Hertz Foundation, supporting his research at Michigan. Now a U.S. citizen, Podsiadlo lives in the Chicago area with his wife Aneta, who is expecting their first child in December. Currently he is a Frank Willard Libby Postdoctoral Fellow at the Argonne National Laboratory's Center for Nanoscale Materials where he continues his research in nanotechnology. Podsiadlo admits, "I really enjoy research, every aspect of it. I can"t just go home and switch off. My wife probably knows more about carbon nanotubes and clay nanosheets than she wishes she did."
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Paul Podsiadlo
Uncoupled Surface Layer Model
When Matt Haugland was a child in San Jose, California, his parents gave him a thermometer that he used to measure the temperature in different spots around his small yard. Haugland was surprised to find temperature differences in various areas. As he grew older, he became fascinated with the microclimates of the San Francisco Bay region and the reasons behind them.
Consequently, Haugland hoped to own land for the purpose of researching the microclimates on it. In 1999, he moved to Oklahoma in search of affordable land. He bought a five-acre plot and installed several weather stations across it. Through his research, based on weather observations from these stations, Haugland developed a weather forecasting technique that would accurately predict nighttime temperatures.
Haugland said, "I’m hoping that this model will help improve weather forecasts around the world." The implications of his work are broad, from helping farmers protect their crops from frost and freezing to helping predict nighttime fog formation, the biggest weather-related cause of death in transportation.
"The idea of innovation really motivates me," commented Haugland. "Growing up in Silicon Valley, I was surrounded by a culture of finding new ways of doing things." Even as a child, Haugland wanted to work with the weather, to understand how it works and how to predict it — he even planted cacti in his yard in hopes they would turn the land into a desert.
When Haugland won the 2006 Collegiate Inventors Competition Grand Prize, he was 26 years old and had come a long way from performing backyard experiments as a youngster. At the time, he said his goal was to run a successful business focused on microclimates and microscale weather forecasting, and his work had already been attracting international interest.
Haugland attended Leigh High School in San Jose, graduating in 1997. After attending San Jose State University for two years, he transferred to the University of Oklahoma, receiving his bachelor's degree in 2001, his master's degree in 2002 and his Ph.D. in May of 2006, all in meteorology. His parents, James and Holly Haugland, continued to reside in the San Jose, California area.
When Matt Haugland was a child in San Jose, California, his parents gave him a thermometer that he used to measure the temperature in different spots around his small yard. Haugland was surprised to find temperature differences in various areas. As he grew older, he became fascinated with the microclimates of the San Francisco Bay region and the reasons behind them.
Consequently, Haugland hoped to own land for the purpose of researching the microclimates on it. In 1999, he moved to Oklahoma in search of affordable land. He bought a five-acre plot and installed several weather stations across it. Through his research, based on weather observations from these stations, Haugland developed a weather forecasting technique that would accurately predict nighttime temperatures.
Haugland said, "I’m hoping that this model will help improve weather forecasts around the world." The implications of his work are broad, from helping farmers protect their crops from frost and freezing to helping predict nighttime fog formation, the biggest weather-related cause of death in transportation.
"The idea of innovation really motivates me," commented Haugland. "Growing up in Silicon Valley, I was surrounded by a culture of finding new ways of doing things." Even as a child, Haugland wanted to work with the weather, to understand how it works and how to predict it — he even planted cacti in his yard in hopes they would turn the land into a desert.
When Haugland won the 2006 Collegiate Inventors Competition Grand Prize, he was 26 years old and had come a long way from performing backyard experiments as a youngster. At the time, he said his goal was to run a successful business focused on microclimates and microscale weather forecasting, and his work had already been attracting international interest.
Haugland attended Leigh High School in San Jose, graduating in 1997. After attending San Jose State University for two years, he transferred to the University of Oklahoma, receiving his bachelor's degree in 2001, his master's degree in 2002 and his Ph.D. in May of 2006, all in meteorology. His parents, James and Holly Haugland, continued to reside in the San Jose, California area.
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Matthew B. Haugland
Universally Friendly Obturator (UFO)
Cervical cancer disproportionately affects low-income countries where cases progress to later stages, contributing to over 300,000 deaths globally each year. Brachytherapy, a type of radiation therapy, is the only curative treatment for late-stage cases but is infrequently used due to its complexity. The Universally Friendly Obturator (UFO) addresses this challenge by providing a customizable device that simplifies the procedure and lowers patient morbidity - making this life-saving treatment more accessible to women worldwide, regardless of their economic status.
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Elisa Arango
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Susannah Dittmar
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Lauren Payne
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Sanika Rane
Variable Surface Area Parafoil
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Zachary C. Hoisington
VirSENSE
To manage and ultimately control the spread of the COVID-19 virus, rapid, inexpensive and easily deployable testing is crucial. It’s for this reason that Maha Alafeef created VirSENSE, a rapid test for COVID-19 that users can administer entirely at home. Using an electrochemical biosensor paired with an electrical reader, the test screens for active cases and is over 98% accurate. Thanks to the technology that VirSENSE is using, individuals are able to determine in real time if they are COVID-19 positive, even before their bodies develop a detectable antibody response.
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