BRIGHT IDEAS:
From their freshman year to the last semester of a PhD program, ECE students are active participants in a variety of invention and innovation competitions at UW-Madison—and their efforts are being well rewarded with cash prizes and resources to establish companies.
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Fourth place Schoofs Prize for Creativity ($1,000) and Younkle Best Presentation Award ($1,000)—Plant Oil Burning Stove, an inexpensive cooking stove that burns plant oils, creating a new industry in rural Haiti. Invented by electrical engineering senior Jason Lohr, mechanical engineering senior Eyleen Chou and biomedical engineering senior Tyler Lark.
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Undergrad competition showcases ECE student ideas and inventions
n February, ECE undergraduate students made a strong showing at the 2010 Innovation Days, an annual UW-Madison event that rewards innovative and marketable ideas. A team including ECE senior Jason Lohr (pictured, right) won fourth place in the Schoofs Prize for Creativity and $1,000 for CocoStove, an inexpensive cooking stove that burns plant oils rather than wood charcoal and could create a new industry in rural Haiti. The team also won the Younkle Best Presentation award, which comes with a $1,000 prize. ECE alumnus Peter Tong (MS ’65) and the Tong Family Foundation are among the competition’s benefactors.
Other ECE student teams included:
• Intelliwindows, a system to open and close windows based on the weather and a desired temperature in order to reduce air conditioning costs.Invented by ECE sophomore Chris Beley.
• un.me, a software suite that emphasizes physical, social interaction and collaboration between users. Invented by ECE sophomore Michael Bethencourt.
• Bright Crank, a solar cell and hand-powered system made from recycled bicycle and car parts to light up bus stops. Invented by a team including ECE senior Alesia Casanova.
• Blocks Web API, an interface to allow developers to create web content with a language set via a proxy server that can “translate” across all existing web interfaces. Invented by ECE sophomore Tim McGowan.
• Variable Power Source H2 Production, a system that runs electricity into a high-pressure electrolyzer and then through solid-oxide fuel cells to create a baseload of energy, which can be converted into AC voltage and run to the electric grid. Invented by a team including ECE sophomore Tim McGowan.
• Range Extending Hitch Technology, a detachable engine-generator for plug-in hybrid vehicles. Co-invented by ECE senior Adam Richards.
• Power StripWattmeter, a device that connects to an electrical outlet via a power strip and displays the average power usage of the electric devices connected to the outlet. Invented by ECE and physics senior Chris Zenner.
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| Chris Beley |
Tim McGowan |
Adam Richards |
Chris Zenner |
