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Training tool for rowers wins top prize in BRAINSTORM: The Schoofs Prize for Creativity

Nate Altfeather's Check-meter won him the first-place, $10,000 prize in the 2002 College of Engineering's BRAINSTORM: The Schoofs Prize for Creativity competition. The Check-meter is a lightweight, clamp-mounted, unidirectional accelerometer used to measure negative acceleration, or "check" of a rowing shell. The first-place $2.500 prize in the Tong Prototype Competition went to Tom Johnson for his pneumatically powered shingle stripper. Designed to increase productivity and decrease physical strain for those removing old shingles from roofs, the device also won Johnson one of the three, $1,000 fourth-place prizes in the Brainstorm competition.

Student Nate Altfeature

Nate Altfeather won first place in this year's BRAINSTORM: The Schoofs Prize for Creativity competition with a device called the Check-meter that measures negative acceleration, or "check," of a rowing shell. (large image)

Student Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson won first place in this year's Tong Prototype Prize for his pneumatically powered shingle stripper. (large image)

Students David Manthei, Nikhil Bagadia and Jason Berta

(From left to right) David Manthei, Nikhil Bagadia and Jason Berta won second place in the 2002 BRAINSTORM competition for their redesign of a ski binding system. (large image)

Students Brandon Ripley and Steven Nackers

Brandon Ripley (left) and Steven Nackers (right) won third place in both the BRAINSTORM competition and the Tong Prototype Prize competition. (large image)

Other winners include:

Schoofs Prize:

Second Place, $7,000: Ski-Binding System by Nikhil Bagadia, Jason Berta, James Burke and David Manthei. A design to reduce the incidence and/or grade of knee injuries.

Third Place, $4,000: AKSYS (Anti Kickback System) by Steven Nackers and Brandon Ripley. An electronic system to detect and stop material kickback in table saws.

Fourth Place, $1,000: Self-disarming Suture Needle by Angela Heppner, Briar L. Duffy, Elizabeth K. Nee and Jeffrey M. Phillips. A suture needle designed to prevent disease transmission caused by accidental sticks. The design includes a fluid-filled balloon that when depressed, causes the suture needle to protrude from a protective sheath. Releasing the balloon mechanism retracts the suture needle.

Fourth Place, $1,000: Portable Voice Calibrator by Nicole Werner and Lisa Ruehlow. A device to assist in voice therapy treatments.

Judges Prize for Special Merit, $2,000: Cauterizing Biopsy System by Kelly Stevens. An apparatus and method for reducing and possibly eliminating bleeding in biopsy procedures through the application of radio-frequency heating.

Students Elizabeth Nee, Angela Heppner, Briar Duffy and Jeffrey Phillips

(From left to right) Elizabeth Nee, Angela Heppner, Briar Duffy and Jeffrey Phillips won a fourth-place BRAINSTORM prize for their self-disarming suture. (large image)

Nicole Werner and Lisa Ruehlow

Nicole Werner (left) and Lisa Ruehlow (right) won a fourth-place BRAINSTORM prize and a second-place Tong Prototype Prize for their portable voice calibrator. (large image)

Student Kelly Stevens

Kelly Stevens won the $2,000 Judges Prize for Special Merit for her Cauterizing Biopsy System. (large image)

 

Tong Prototype Prize:

Second Place, $1,250: Portable Voice Calibrator by Nicole Werner and Lisa Ruehlow

Third Place, $700: AKSYS (Anti Kickback System) by Steven Nackers and Brandon Ripley

Now in its eighth year, the BRAINSTORM contest awards cash prizes to those whose ideas are judged most creative, novel, innovative and likely to succeed in the marketplace. The Tong Prototype Prize honors the best prototype developed for the competition. The contests are open to all University of Wisconsin-Madison undergraduates.

The competition's judges were Matthew Younkle (principal, Calyx Partners), Winslow Sargeant (electronics program manager, Small Business Innovations Research (SBIR) Program, National Science Foundation) and John G. Bollinger (professor and dean emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering.

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Copyright 2002 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
Date last modified: 14-Feb-2002
Date created: 11-Feb-2002
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