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.
Continuous Fabrication of Composite Lattice Pole Structur
Since he was a child, the gears inside Mark Jensen's head have been constantly rotating.
"It was really clear he had an engineering mind," his father, David Jensen, said of his son who skipped eighth grade and had an associate's degree before graduating high school.
As an adult, Mark Jensen is using that engineering mind to work with a completely different set of gears.
About 15 years ago, his father invented a lightweight, composite lattice pole structure called IsoTruss and, more recently, Mark Jensen invented a machine to braid and weave fibers into this structure that could potentially take the place of steel and wooden beams.
Mark Jensen said IsoTruss could also be used in the production of motor vehicles and airplanes as a cheaper, greener solution to current models because the design of the composites makes it lightweight and more fuel-efficient.
"It's going to be lighter weight, it's going to be stronger [and] the carbon footprint is going to be smaller," Jensen said. "A lot of people try to pitch 'green' or whatever, but the product really is truly greener than a lot of things we use now."
Along with Aaron Howcraft, co-creator of the machine, Mark Jensen has founded Altus Poles LLC and won many business competitions already. They partnered with a company called Novatek to maintain a home for their company and help buy machining supplies cheaper.
David Jensen, a professor at Brigham Young University, designed the IsoTruss structure when Mark Jensen was a child and now acts as an adviser for him in some of the business and invention competitions he entered before graduating from BYU last April.
"As his adviser, he's the perfect student to work with because he's responsible, he's creative, he's smart and he gets things done," David Jensen said. "As his father, I'm very proud, and I'm very excited for what he's doing with the IsoTruss, which is something I've devoted a lot of my life to."
A deal between Altus Poles, BYU and Novatek allowed David Jensen to become a consultant for his son's work. He said he enjoys working side-by-side with him and is proud he is the one who will make IsoTruss commercially available after years of frustration trying this same feat himself.
The machine is made up of a series of gears that rotate bobbins around an axis and switches that allow the bobbins to move from gear to gear, braiding them into the composite material that makes up the structure. The whole system is run by computer software Mark Jensen helped to develop.
Howcraft said Mark Jensen's focus was always to make the business successful and they have both taken big risks to get the machine running and their company off the ground.
David Jensen said he is nervous for his son because he has seen companies fail, but he has high confidence in his son.
"When he says 'I can do this,' I know he'll learn how to do it and do it right," he said.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/team_member_media/public/team-member/2018-10/jensen_mark.jpg)
Mark Jensen
Conversion of Silicon Carbide to Diamond
![](/sites/default/files/styles/team_member_media/public/team-member/2020-03/ErsoyWelz.jpg)
Daniel Ersoy
![](/sites/default/files/styles/team_member_media/public/team-member/2020-03/ErsoyWelz_0.jpg)
Sascha Welz
Corrective Horseshoeing for Contracture of the Distal Inerphalangeal Joint
![](/sites/default/files/styles/team_member_media/public/team-member/2020-04/GettyImages-871072296_11.jpg)
Tia N. Fehlig
Corrosion-Resistant Molecular Coatings
Iridium is the most corrosion-resistant metal, and one of the rarest elements on Earth, making it impractical for use on a large scale. This process creates an ultra-thin layer of an iridium-containing molecule that can be bonded onto other metals and metal oxides. Oil, gas, and chemical industries will benefit from this more cost-efficient technology, where stopping corrosion is crucial for safe operations.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/team_member_media/public/team-member/2018-10/staffordsheehan.png)
Stafford Sheehan
CPRGlove: Wearable CPR Training, Testing and Assist Device
As Corey Centen and Nilesh Patel sat in their college cafeteria at the beginning of their senior year, they discussed ideas for their final project. As they talked, they realized that even though both had been trained in CPR in high school, neither of them could really remember how to do it if faced with an emergency situation. They thought it would be great to have a device that could assist people with CPR in emergency situations and even help train them on the techniques. The idea for the CPRGlove was born.
Centen and Patel conducted research, and they were surprised to discover that a 2005 study concluded that CPR quality was well below the levels it should be, even when administered by health care professionals. Convinced that there was a real need for a device to assist with CPR, they began working on a prototype, outfitting a store-bought glove with various electronics. By the next year, their design had progressed to a custom-made glove with sensors and an LCD screen to give instructions and feedback when the user performs CPR. The glove is able to provide information on the rate, depth, force, and angle of compressions as well as the heart rate. It also speaks, providing verbal cues for the user.
What began as a senior project for them has turned into a business. Along with a fellow electrical and biomedical engineering classmate from McMaster, they formed Atreo Medical, Inc. to refine and market the device. They've been pleased to receive support and funding for working on the glove from various Canadian sources, and they are making headway in the U.S. as well.
Centen, 22, grew up in Ottawa, Ontario. Always interested in inventing as a youngster, he recalls continuously working on his own projects, even turning the dining room of his home into a mini-lab for his work. "My parents," he remembers, "were very generous." After graduating from Immaculata High School, he found things similar as a student at McMaster, where he created an unofficial lab in the corner of his dorm room. Centen graduated earlier this year with a degree in electrical and biomedical engineering and is the CEO of Atreo. The CPRGlove is an exciting project for him as he thinks about the lives that could potentially be saved. "Right now," he says, "we"re focusing on a final prototype for clinical trials, and then we"ll work on FDA approval."
Patel, 21, is from Toronto where he graduated from West Humber Collegiate Institute. He looks forward to graduating from McMaster with his electrical and biomedical engineering degree in 2008. Patel also remembers his inventiveness as a child, once using a cardboard box, a solar panel, and some LEDs to create a solar house. He sees the importance of the three main uses for the CPRGlove - to train individuals in CPR, to test their knowledge of it, and to use in emergency situations. Patel is also thrilled to know that the glove has been receiving positive attention. He notes, "After a story ran about our work with the glove, we were actually contacted by the lead researcher of the 2005 CPR study that we had researched." Patel is currently the chief technical officer of Atreo.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/team_member_media/public/team-member/2018-10/Centen_corey.jpg)
Corey Centen
![](/sites/default/files/styles/team_member_media/public/team-member/2018-10/Patel_nilesh.jpg)