UW-Madison students showed off their imaginations Monday as they competed to win cash for their inventions.
The eighth annual Brainstorm contest was held in Engineering Hall, and Schoofs prizes were awarded to inventions judged to be creative, novel, innovative and likely to succeed in the marketplace. Students also competed to win the Tong Prototype Competition, which rates the prototypes for entries developed for the competition.
Nate Altfeather, a UW bio-systems engineering major, picked up first place and a $10,000 prize in the Schoofs competition for his Check-meter, a lightweight, clamp-mounted, unidirectional accelerometer used to measure negative acceleration, or “check” of a rowing shell, or a boat.
Altfeather said he will use the award as “seed money” to patent and perhaps market the product. The senior said he was shocked upon learning he had won.
“There were some incredible inventions there,” he said. “I didn’t think I had a chance. I actually thought they had forgotten to call my name when they were handing out the certificates for participants.”
First place in the Tong competition went to Tom Johnson for his pneumatically-powered shingle stripper. Johnson was awarded $2,500 for the product, which is designed to increase productivity and decrease physical strain for those removing old roof shingles.
Other prize-winning inventions include a ski-binding system, a portable voice calibrator and a device to cover suture needles to avoid accidental sticks.
The contest, which included 19 teams, was open to all UW undergraduates. Judges were Matthew Younkle, principal of Calyx Partners, Winslow Sargeant, electronics program manager for the Small Business Innovations Research Program at the National Science Foundation, and John Bollinger, UW engineering professor and dean emeritus.
This was UW junior Steven Nacker’s second competition. He and partner Brandon Ripley, also a junior, designed an electronic system to detect and stop material kickback in table saws. Nacker said the competition has proved to be interesting, fun and provided potential employment opportunities.
“You just can’t go wrong with entering this competition,” Nacker said. “You have a chance of winning money and getting an idea out.”
