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.
Chip Fabrication by Liquid Embossing
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Colin Bulthaup
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Eric J. Wilhelm
Codeposition of Chromium and Silicon Diffusion Coatings on Fe-Based Alloys using Pack Cementation
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Mark A. Harper
Colorimetric DNA Detection with Au Nanoparticles
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Robert Mucic
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James Storhoff
Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria and Bacterial Biofilms with Engineered Bacteriophage and Synthetic Gene Sensors
While performing his clinical rotations at a large hospital, Timothy Lu, a Harvard Medical School and MIT student, was bothered by the infectious outbreaks he witnessed in many patients. The unexpected infections would cause lengthened hospital stays, additional treatment, or both, resulting in increased healthcare dollars being spent. Lu remembers, "That experience drove me to look for a solution to this problem."
Lu knew that antibiotic-resistant bacteria are usually treated with stronger and stronger antibiotics, leading to subsequent decreases in the antibiotics available for the treatment of future infections as resistance continues to evolve. He also knew that very few new classes of antibiotics have been developed within the past few decades, partly due to the large cost associated with modern drug discovery. Working in the new field of synthetic biology, Lu created engineered bacteriophages - viruses that infect bacteria - which work in conjunction with existing antibiotics to make them much more effective against bacteria.
In addition, Lu realized that bacterial biofilms are capable of causing long-term infections, not just in hospitals but also in food-processing and industrial settings. Biofilms are bacterial communities that live on surfaces and produce protective coatings to make themselves highly resistant to antimicrobial treatment. Common tactics to deal with biofilms involve physically removing and replacing infected items or using harsh chemical treatments. Instead, Lu engineered bacteriophage to produce enzymes that break down the protective coating surrounding biofilms, enabling deep penetration into biofilms and increased killing of bacterial cells.
Captivated by research, Lu is hopeful that his inventions will have a positive impact on society and health. In addition to finding success with his work, he also enjoys collaborating with others to improving patient care.
Born in Stanford, California, Lu, 27, spent his early years growing up in New York and then moved to Taiwan, where he graduated from high school. His parents continue to live in Taiwan, where his father founded and runs, along with his mother, Etron Technology, an integrated circuit design and production company. Lu recalls that when he was young, his father was involved with advancing state-of-the-art technology in the semiconductor industry as an engineer at IBM. Lu likens the emerging field of synthetic biology to the early and revolutionary days of the semiconductor industry and is inspired by the parallels he sees between the two fields.
A 2003 graduate of MIT with his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, Lu is a student in the M.D./Ph.D. program at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. He received his Ph.D. in February 2008 and expects to receive his M.D. in 2010. As for his plans upon graduation, he says, "My heart really is in research. I"m not sure if it will be academia or industry, but I want to stay involved in research and make an impact on the world."
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Timothy Lu
Computerized microfluidic control for cell biology using Braille display
Wei Gu's invention involves microfluidics, an emerging technology relying on microscopic control of liquid flows from medical purposes to chemical analysis. Gu has created an unusually simple, robust machine that acts as a miniature plumbing system, complete with microscopic pumps, valves, pipes, and mixing chambers. "I think in the future these devices will be as common as cell phones or laptops," Gu said, explaining that microfluidic machines could become powerful diagnostic tools for doctors, or allow patients to monitor their health more precisely than is possible today.
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