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At least 6 awards are made each year to teams that demonstrate innovative
solutions to problems in local, national, and international communities. Each winning team has demonstrated to the judges that their project was innovative, sustainable, and feasible.
Having a good idea is an
important first step, but it's just an idea. Each of the following
projects is an idea brought to life through the team's energy and dedication.
We wish you
good luck in conceiving and developing your own ideas this year,
and please check out the Get Connected
part of this site if you'd like to learn how we can help you along the way.
$
7500 IDEAS Award for International Technology
(Sponsored by the Lemelson-MIT Program)
Aerovax
$ 7500 IDEAS Award
(Sponsored by The IDEAS Competition)
FirstStepCoral
$
5000 IDEAS Award for International Technology
(Sponsored by the Lemelson-MIT Program)
Turn Pure
$
5000 IDEAS Award
(Sponsored by ITA Software)
AllHeal
$
5000 IDEAS Award
(Sponsored by the IDEAS Competition)
Peanut Revolution
$
2500 IDEAS Graduate Student Award
(Sponsored by the MIT Graduate Students Office)
Safe Pilot
$ 2500 IDEAS Baruch Award for Undergraduate Innovation
(Sponsored by the Baruch Family Foundation)
Rowing Wheelchair
Aerovax
Aerovax: Vaccinating the Last Mile
Aerovax’s mission is to develop innovative and low-cost ‘last-mile’ solutions for vaccinating developing populations against deadly infectious diseases. Our product is a safe and effective aerosol vaccine device that can operate without electrical power, without needles. Our first target is the reduction of measles-related death on a worldwide basis. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there are 30 million cases and 500,000 measles deaths annually, and Aerovax aims to help reduce those numbers significantly.
Innovation. Our device was recently highlighted in a Forbes.com article on innovation. Key areas of design innovation:
• No requirement for electrical power
• Safe and non-invasive (no needles)
• Minimal training requirements
Feasibility. Our team has excellent breadth of training in biomedical engineering, medicine, and management. We have expert advisors in aerosol drug delivery and infectious diseases to help ensure success on technical and biological fronts. Milestones achieved in academic year 2005-2006 include:
• Establishing a clear global health need
• Prototype completed
• Exploring partnerships with WHO and local NGOs
Community Impact. The WHO’s Global Vaccine Research Forum (2004) concluded that new needle-free strategies are needed to implement mass vaccination programs safely. To understand the specific needs for mass vaccination, we have begun discussions with the WHO Measles Product Development Group and UNICEF. To understand healthcare limitations on the ground, Aerovax has made key connections to groups familiar with rural healthcare conditions. With 30 million cases and around 500,000 measles deaths annually, the potential Aerovax impact is enormous.
aerovaccine@mit.edu
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FirstStepCoral
In the Philippines, coral reefs provide about 60% of animal-protein consumed. However, the country also has about 90% of coral reefs either badly damaged or highly threatened by human activities. The high threat of human devastation has earned the Philippines a number-one rank in the world’s top 10 hotspots for coral reefs. Current methods of reef restoration, even with strong community involvement, have made little impact on their overall decline. A restoration system with higher success probability is urgently required. We propose the First-Step Coral project that will combine the new Gorlov turbine to harness unexploited tidal-energy to grow Biorock assisted coral reefs. Corals grown with BioRock assistance have been shown to enhance growth rates (up to 4X!), be more resistant to climatic bleaching, reduce soil erosion, and importantly increase fish populations. Although tidal energy provides ideal in-situ renewable power for coral reef restoration, these two new technologies have never been combined before.
The community partner is the coastal city of Sagay, Philippines. With a population of ~70,000, it is considered a major fishing area as it is bounded by the rich Visayan Sea. However, for the past three decades, rampant dynamite and cyanide fishing has decimated coral formations of Carbin Reef located off the city’s coastline. The Sagay Marine Reserve Authority together with the innovative First-Step Coral project will be the catalyst to promoting active coral restoration. The direct benefits of improved fish populations will be to the local fishermen who are highly dependent on this resource for daily living.
coralproject@mit
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TurnPure
41,000 children die each day from symptoms caused by drinking contaminated water. TurnPure is a non-profit company that believes that all people have the right to a safe and plentiful supply of water. We’ve developed a patent pending technology that can rapidly and effectively purify water contaminated with bacteria, protozoa, and viruses without using chemicals or battery power. Simply pour contaminated water into the bottle, close the top, and turn the generator crank until an indicator light tells you the water is safe to drink. Our current prototype can make 1L of water safe to drink in less than 1 minute.
One of our goals is to put our device into the hands of the people who need it the most. We desire to sell our TurnPure bottles to individuals and families in the developing world at a great loss. The cost of the device will be offset by selling it to the large outdoor recreation, travel, and military markets for a profit. We want to create a company that promotes social responsibility while utilizing a sustainable business model.
Another goal is to reduce the world’s dependence on bottled spring water. Global dependence on bottled water is depleting our natural resources and polluting our world. Choosing a TurnPure water bottle over bottled water is an energy efficient and cost effective choice.
garymlong@gmail.com
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AllHeal
There are 12.5 million worldwide cases of chronic, and potentially debilitating, wounds. Wounds that do not heal within three months are considered chronic. Some of these wounds take years to heal, as others may never heal, causing great emotional, physical, and financial stresses. Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) is a revolutionary technology that has been medically proven to successfully treat these chronic wounds. However, current NPWT treatments are completely unavailable to the third world, as the only application that exists in the developed world is currently implemented with a $10K-$20K vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) device and $180 per day disposable dressings. Aiming to impact medical technology available to serve the third world, AllHeal has developed low-cost VAC solutions for under $3 per unit and less than $1 per day for disposables.
Currently, two VAC concepts have been developed into functional designs, and have working prototypes that were analyzed on clean skin: the Wound Sucker and Wound Flush. Both of these prototyped devices focus on third world applications, as their designs are very robust, reusable, and cleanable. As the AllHeal team pushes for a third world solution, Dr. Sheridan is helping the team to design for third world environments, as he often volunteers in third world clinics that treat chronic wounds. He is also assisting the team in obtaining clinical trials at MGH of the current solutions.
allheal@mit.edu
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Peanut Revolution
In the Philippines, an estimated area of 28,000 hectares are planted with peanuts during the crop year 2005 and these are growing at a mere 2% per annum. Women and children are tapped as the primary source of cheap manual labor when it comes to shelling the peanuts for new crop cycles which happen every three months. The average time to shell the most common individual farm landholding of two hectares in the provinces is one week working at an average of nine hours a day.
The Philippines presently requires 92,000 MT annually. To fill up this requirement, the Philippines imported 59,000 MT to supplement the domestic production of 33,400 MT. This indicates that only 36.30% of the Philippine market is sourced locally.
Simple machines introduced to make shelling more efficient would bring about expansion of village processing micro-enterprises to secure produce of increased and consistent volume of shelled nuts versus the previous manual production.
The MIT Peanut Revolution Team will introduce an upgradable version of improved the hand peanut sheller in Pangasinan, Philippines where previously fertile clay lands have been layered by sand and ash from the 1991 Pinatubo volcano eruption and drastically altered traditional planting practices.
Using a bike system linked to a peanut mill, the easily replicated cement mechanism can be disbursed widely among the community and groups of farmers organized to supply industries with peanut products.
illac@mit.edu
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SafePilot
Everyday life for the visually impaired person is very difficult, especially mobility wise. Indeed, walking in the street among a crowd, crossing a road with cars or just encountering overhanging tree branches can be extremely challenging for a person who hardly sees. The cane is a very useful tool as it helps them detect obstacles on the ground and in their immediate enviroment. By going back and forth with the cane, the person is able to get a fairly accurate idea of obstacles above their waist and on the ground...but not about what occurs elsewhere in the immediate environment of the visually impaired person! Indeed, overhanging branches, signs, people moving, … all those obstacles will not be detected by a normal cane. We provide a low-cost extension to existing canes that conveys this additional information to the user in an unobtrusive manner. SafePilot will provide 360º coverage of the immediate environment of the visually impaired person. We use inexpensive infrared distance sensors developed for use in a cameras auto-focus feature with a vibrating motor to communicate the sensors reading to the user through vibrations on the fingers. This allows the user to walk without fear of overhanging obstacles.
We believe SafePilot will be very beneficial for visually impaired people as it will help them be more self-confident about going out and living a normal life in the streets and with other people.
safepilot@mit.edu
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Rowing Wheelchair
Compact Bike-sourced Rowing Wheelchair
Our wheelchair has levers that you ‘row’. Compared with a conventional wheelchair, our Rowchair (i) better enables the user to tackle steep slopes and rugged terrain, and (ii) offers more efficient propulsion over longer distances. It has been designed from scratch, without reference to the few other rowing chairs in existence. Compared with other rowing chairs, it (iii) is more compact and maneuverable, usable as a rowing chair in most indoor spaces, and also as a conventional wheelchair in smaller indoor spaces (such as bathrooms), the levers folding down out of the way. (iv) It makes use, where possible, of low-cost readily-available bike parts.
The initial design idea came from Steve Langton, inspired by the struggles of his disabled friend and neighbor in the rugged Australian bush-land where they live. Conventional wheelchairs both tip back and roll back on steep slopes. Our wheelchair solves both problems: you ‘row’ this chair with levers, keeping your body weight forward, whilst roll-back is prevented with bicycle-sourced ratcheting freewheels. Conventional wheelchairs cannot usually manage a one-in-six incline; our disabled tester (who has good upper-body fitness) managed a one-in-three incline. There are disc-brakes (mountain-bike sourced), actuated by controls set neatly into the tops of the levers, for effective stopping and for easy steering whilst pulling. Our prototype still faces some development challenges, especially (i) making it collapsible; (ii) designing a better neutral gear.
jasadler@mit.edu
http://web.mit.edu/holton/www/personal/rowchair/rowchair.html
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