16 undergraduate and graduate students honored by National Inventors Hall of Fame.
The National Inventors Hall of Fame recently announced winners in the Collegiate Inventors Competition, which rewards selected graduate and undergraduate finalist teams for their inventions and research that add value and usefulness to society. Fields of study range from technological trends to medical breakthroughs.
The University of Virginia’s Ameer Shakeel and Payam Pourtaheri were undergraduate gold winners for their invention AgroSpheres—engineered biological particles that degrade residual pesticides on the surface of plants, allowing crops to be safely harvested after a few hours. Carl Schoellhammer, a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was the graduate gold winner for his invention of SuonoCalm, used for at-home rapid administration of medications directly into tissue using low-frequency ultrasound.
Undergraduate silver winners from Columbia University were Charles Pan, Aishwarya Raha, Chanond Sophonpanich and Aonnicha Burapachaisri for their invention of Cathecare, used to continually and automatically sterilize the hub of catheters to stop infections in their tracks. University of Massachusetts Lowell students Brendan Donoghue, Erin Keaney and Jonathan Perez de Alderete were graduate silver winners for their invention of Nonspec, an adjustable prosthetic system.
Sarah Lee, Clarisse Hu, Serena Thomas and Bailey Surtees from Johns Hopkins University were the undergraduate bronze winners for their invention Cryoablation, which offers a promising option for women in low-to-middle-income countries diagnosed with breast cancer. The invention freezes a probe that kills tumor cells using carbon dioxide gas. Graduate bronze winners were Aaron Blanchard and Kevin Yehl from Emory University for their invention Rolosense, a new class of DNA machinery that turns chemical energy into rolling motion.
