The Create the Future Design Contest, launched in 2002 by Tech Briefs Media Group (publishers of Tech Briefs magazine), recognizes and rewards engineering innovations that benefit humanity, the environment, and the economy. The annual contest draws product designs from engineers, students, and entrepreneurs worldwide. In this special section, you'll meet the Grand Prize Winner as well as e the winners and Honorable Mentions in all seven categories, chosen from new product ideas submitted from more than 60 countries. To view all of the entries online, visit here .


CONTEST SPONSORS

COMSOL, INC.

 

COMSOL is a global provider of simulation software for product design and research to technical enterprises, research labs, and universities. Its COMSOL Multiphysics® product is an integrated software environment for creating physics-based models and simulation applications. COMSOL has 19 offices worldwide and extends its reach with a network of distributors.

MOUSER ELECTRONICS

 

Mouser Electronics, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is an award-winning, authorized semiconductor and electronic component distributor focused on rapid New Product Introductions from its manufacturing partners for electronic design engineers and buyers. The global distributor's website, Mouser.com, is available in multiple languages and currencies and features more than 5 million products from over 800 manufacturers. Mouser offers 27 support locations around the world to provide best-in-class customer service and ships globally to over 630,000 customers in more than 223 countries/territories from its 750,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility south of Dallas, Texas.

ANALOG DEVICES (Supporting sponsor)

 

Analog Devices is a leading global high-performance analog technology company dedicated to solving the toughest engineering challenges. We enable our customers to interpret the world around us by intelligently bridging the physical and digital with unmatched technologies that sense, measure, power, connect and interpret.

INTEL (Supporting sponsor)

 

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), a leader in the semiconductor industry, is shaping the data-centric future with computing and communications technology that is the foundation of the world's innovations. The company's engineering expertise is helping address the world's greatest challenges as well as helping secure, power and connect billions of devices and the infrastructure of the smart, connected world – from the cloud to the network to the edge and everything in between. Find more information about Intel here .

SIEMENS (Automotive/Transportation Category Sponsor)

 

Siemens Digital Industries Software provides an industry-unique portfolio of automotive design tools and software. Our solutions enable functionality in applications such as connected cars and smart cities, automated driving, electric powertrain, factory and fleet management, and more. We work with players throughout the transportation ecosystem, including car companies and suppliers, software and tech companies in the Silicon Valley, automated vehicle startups, public transportation agencies, and government decision-makers. Siemens Digital Industries Software — chip to city for new mobility.

ZEUS INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS (Medical Category Sponsor)

 

Zeus Industrial Products, Inc. is headquartered in Orangeburg, SC USA. Its core business is the development and precision extrusion of advanced polymeric materials. The company employs over 1,300 people worldwide with manufacturing facilities in Aiken, Gaston, and Orangeburg, South Carolina; Branchburg, New Jersey; and Letterkenny, Ireland. Zeus products and services serve companies in the aerospace, automotive, medical, fiber optics, energy, and fluid management markets.

MAPLESOFT (Manufacturing/Robotics/Automation Category Sponsor)

 

Maplesoft provides engineers with the tools and expertise they need to enable a model-driven innovation process that helps manage design complexity. Offering experts in a variety of engineering fields, extensive experience in model-based design, and the superior system-level modeling and analysis tools MapleSim and Maple, Maplesoft helps companies reduce development risk and bring high-quality products to market faster. Through Maple, Maplesoft also provides a complete concept-to-deployment environment for advanced analysis and rapid development of technical applications and engineering calculation tools.

HEILIND/TE CONNECTIVITY (Electronics/Sensors/IoT Category Sponsor)

 

Heilind Electronics, Inc. is one of the world's leading distributors of connectors, relays, sensors, switches, thermal management, and circuit protection products, terminal blocks, wire and cable, wiring accessories, and insulation and identification products. Founded in 1974, Heilind has locations throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong, and China. Follow Heilind on Facebook at facebook.com/Heilind and on Twitter at twitter.com/Heilind.

FLC (Supporting sponsor)

 

Organized in 1974 and chartered by the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986, the FLC is a nationwide network of about 300 federal labs, centers, parent departments, and agencies that establishes strategies and opportunities for linking laboratory mission technologies and expertise with the marketplace. To accomplish its mission of assisting the movement of innovative federal research and development into the U.S. economy, the FLC provides resources from training to regional and national meetings so its members can obtain resources they need for successful technology transfer.