RPI is the Winner in ASME Innovation Showcase

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, N.Y., captured first and second-place awards in the ASME Innovation Showcase (I-Show), which was held Nov. 9 during the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Seattle.

RPI was one of eight universities to compete in the inaugural I-Show, which judged the entries — all of them technology prototypes — based on inventive skill, feasibility, and potential to impact the commercial marketplace. Contestants were challenged to make a case for their technology innovations to a judging panel made up of entrepreneurs, intellectual property specialists, and venture capitalists.

The winning team at the I-Show, Gavin McIntyre and Eben Bayer from RPI, present their product Greensulate — a novel insulating material made up of perlite that is bonded into a composite board by the growth of a benign fungus.

ASME developed the I-Show in collaboration with the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance and Idea to Product competitions. The event aims to nurture a new generation of innovators, while supporting inventive undergraduate projects, student programs, and faculty curriculum development.

First place in the I-Show went to a two-person team at RPI that developed Greensulate, a biodegradable insulation material produced from mushrooms and other organic materials. The inventors, who received $5,000 in seed funding, promoted the organic material as an environmentally friendly replacement for foam and other synthetically produced commercial products.

The eight I-Show presentations were reviewed by a panel of judges on Nov. 9, the first day of the Congress.

A second team from RPI won second-place honors, including $3,000, for a device that monitors the condition of diabetic patients via analysis and visual readout of feet. The RPI students named the device STOMP, or Scanning, Thermal, and Optical Measurement Platform.

"Sleep Sound," developed by the team from the University of Idaho, incorporates a variable inductor embedded into sleepwear to detect stopped breathing of an infant. A signal is sent from a circuit on the clothing to a base unit from which an alarm sounds if no breathing movements are detected for a set length of time.

Other prototypes entered in the I-Show included a self-stabilizing hydrofoil for pleasure boats, a drug delivery device for chemotherapy patients, and a system for monitoring breathing in infants.

A second Innovation Showcase is being planned for 2008 in Boston. For more information on the program, contact Patti Jo Snyder at (202) 785-3756, e-mail SnyderP@asme.org, or visit www.asme.org/Communities/Entrepreneur/Innovation_
Showcase_IShow.cfm.

back to news & features