Mouser Electronics, the global authorized electronic component distributor and sponsor of the Create the Future Design Contest, joins in recognizing the 2021 contest winners, who were announced at a special virtual awards presentation. Mouser’s valued manufacturers Intel and Analog Devices, Inc. teamed with Mouser in sponsoring the 19th annual contest, produced by SAE Media Group, an SAE International Company.
“We are ecstatic to see the amazing ingenuity behind this year’s group of Create the Future entries,” says Kevin Hess, Mouser Senior Vice President of Marketing. “Mouser offers its sincere congratulations to the winners and commend the entrants for their creative designs.”
Together with COMSOL and SAE Media Group, Mouser will award the $25,000 grand prize to a team from the University of California Berkeley and Intropic Materials, who created “Self-Destructing Plastics.” The winning design embeds enzymes in plastics that can be triggered to cause the plastics to completely degrade within days.
Finalists were selected by senior editors at SAE Media Group, producer of the contest, and judged by an independent panel of design engineers. Judges awarded the following category winners, who received prizes from HP and other companies:
- Grand Prize — Self-Destructing Plastics via Embedded Enzymes
- Aerospace & Defense — How to Keep Drones Flying When a Motor Fails, without GPS: A vision-based control algorithm that saves quadrotor drones from crashing after the complete loss of a motor.
- Automotive/Transportation — Afreecar E-kit: A briefcase-sized solar kit that is easily attached to non-motorized vehicles.
- Consumer Products — Aira FreePower – Advanced Wireless Power: An advanced hardware and firmware approach that enables surface power in any size.
- Electronics/Sensors/IoT — Freetouch: Technology that lets anyone safely interact with public displays through their own smartphone.
- Manufacturing/Automation/Robotics — Electronics-Free Soft Walking Robot: A four-legged robot that uses innovative materials to function.
- Medical — Halo Speculum: A gently expanding tool that improves patient comfort.
- Sustainable Technologies — Multifunctional Bionanocomposite Fruit Coatings: A protein-based coating that dramatically increases the shelf life of perishable foods.
The Create the Future Design Contest brings attention to product designs that enhance quality of life, improve the efficiency and quality of healthcare or help to reduce dependence on nonrenewable energy sources. The contest was created in 2002 by the publishers of Tech Briefs magazine to help stimulate and reward engineering innovation.
For more information, go to https://www.mouser.com/createthefuture/.
