Invent Now, Inc., in an effort to recognize the outstanding work of this country’s student innovators, has announced the 2012 finalists of its annual Collegiate Inventors Competition. Included in this year’s group is a Dartmouth team of recent B.E. graduates—Elizabeth Chang, Amanda Christian, and Christopher Ng (advised by Professor Doug Van Citters)—who invented an "Expandable Hydrogel Sphere for Orbital Implantation" for patients either lacking an eyeball or having a small eyeball.

Christopher Ng

Amanda Christian

Elizabeth Chang

All fourteen finalists, consisting of seven undergraduate students and teams and seven graduate students and teams, will travel to Washington, D.C. to present their inventions to an esteemed panel of judges, which includes several Inductees to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, on November 12. The winners will be announced on November 13 at an event taking place at the Newseum in Washington, DC. The top undergraduate winner will receive $12,500, with second and third place winners receiving $10,000 and $7,500. The top graduate winner will receive $15,000, with second and third place winners receiving $12,500 and $10,000.

This year’s finalists were chosen after being judged by experts in various technological fields on the originality of the idea, process, or technology, level of student initiative, as well as potential value and usefulness to society. This year’s final round judges include seven Inductees from the National Inventors Hall of Fame: Thomas Fogarty (embolectomy catheter), Marcian “Ted” Hoff (microprocessor), Don Keck (optical fiber), Alois Langer (implantable defibrillator), Steve Sasson (digital camera), Gary Starkweather (laser printer) and James West (electret microphone). In addition, the judging panel will include experts from Abbott, the Kauffman Foundation and the USPTO.

About the Collegiate Inventors Competition

The Collegiate Inventors Competition promotes innovation and recognizes researchers early in their careers and rewards students’ pioneering breakthrough research as they address the problems of today’s world. The Competition encourages college students to be active in science, engineering, mathematics, technology, and creative invention. It specifically recognizes and rewards the innovations, discoveries, and research by college and university students and their advisors for projects leading to inventions that may have the potential of receiving patent protection. Introduced in 1990, the Competition has awarded more than $1 million to winning students for their innovative work and scientific achievement through the help of its sponsors. For more information on the Competition’s sponsors, the Abbott Fund, the Kauffman Foundation and the USPTO, visit www.abbottfund.org, www.kauffman.org, and www.uspto.gov. For more information on the Competition and past winners, visit invent.org/collegiate-inventors-competition.