The 2025 Contest is Now Open for Entries!
Submit your best new product ideas in any of seven categories for a chance at $25,000 USD and other great prizes. Here’s how to get started.
Help build a better tomorrow
Since Tech Briefs magazine launched the Create the Future Design contest in 2002 to recognize and reward engineering innovation, over 15,000 design ideas have been submitted by engineers, students, and entrepreneurs in more than 100 countries. Join the innovators who dared to dream big by entering your ideas today.
Read About All the 2024 Winning Inventions
Special Report spotlights the eight amazing winners in 2024 as well as honorable mentions in each category, plus the top ten most popular entries as voted by our community.
Click here to read moreA ‘Create the Future’ Winner Featured on ‘Here’s an Idea’
Spinal cord injury affects 17,000 Americans and 700,000 people worldwide each year. A research team at NeuroPair, Inc. won the Grand Prize in the 2023 Create the Future Design Contest for a revolutionary approach to spinal cord repair. In this Here’s an Idea podcast episode, Dr. Johannes Dapprich, NeuroPair’s CEO and founder, discusses their groundbreaking approach that addresses a critical need in the medical field, offering a fast and minimally invasive solution to a long-standing problem.
Listen nowThank you from our Sponsors
“At COMSOL, we are very excited to recognize innovators and their important work this year. We are grateful for the opportunity to support the Create the Future Design Contest, which is an excellent platform for designers to showcase their ideas and products in front of a worldwide audience. Best of luck to all participants!”
— Bernt Nilsson, Senior Vice President of Marketing, COMSOL, Inc.
“From our beginnings, Mouser has supported engineers, innovators and students. We are proud of our longstanding support for the Create the Future Design Contest and the many innovations it has inspired.”
— Kevin Hess, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Mouser Electronics
contest
Contest
Cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other vehicles with internal combustion engines all have in common one dirty little secret. After the engine is started, and until the catalytic converter is up to operating temperature, the engine's exhaust gases are emitting pollutants as if the vehicle did not have a catalytic converter installed.
The Problem
• Conventional sources of electricity are ultimately unsustainable.
o Nonrenewable
o Generate pollution and waste
o Toxic and dangerous materials

Super-Resolution X-ray Imaging System (SRX) is an innovative solution to acquire exponentially high resolution X-ray images using current X-ray detector with sub-pixel displacement method. SRX system consists of an X-ray detector mounted on a 2-dimensional micro-displacement actuator. Through a series of controlled micrometer-level displacements,

Portable Energy Harvesting Magnetic Refrigerator
Refrigeration is one of the main source in many sectors such as Food processing Industries, Materials manufacturing industries, Pharmaceutical industries and the list goes on. In a typical refrigerator, a circulating refrigerant such as Freon enters the compressor as a vapor. The vapor is compressed at constant entropy and exits the compressor superheated.
Conventional helicopters usually represent a compromise between hovering capabilities and cruise speed. While many new configurations are aimed at improving the speed and maneuverability, such as tilt-rotors and compound helicopters, few of them attempt to increase the load lifting capabilities in hover.
The Flooding Roadway Indicator device provides safety awareness in flooding conditions, through illumination or visual identification of the road pathway and/or surrounding dangers . It provides the benefit of safety through the clear identification of the roadways, as it provides the visualization of the path to travel and the location of equipment, particularly those of danger.
Xtreme Green, Ultra-light, Multipurpose Vehicle Utilizing Ultra-efficient, Multi-fuel, Rotary Engine
The exigent global energy shortage and air pollution problem is also affecting our prosperity. One way to address both of these issues is to make carbon-fuel-utilization more efficient. Vehicle lightweighting is part of the strategy because hundreds of millions of tons of vehicle material are moved around unnecessarily, wasting energy and producing pollution.
New non-fossil fuel based energy sources has become an important technological need for the next years. This technology won’t only fuel economic growth and contribute to global environmental sustainability, but also reduce the energy dependence on oil. The predominant renewable energy sources include but not limited to ocean wave energy, wind energy, biofuels and solar energy.
While great at holding a large number of books, bookshelves can make it hard for avid readers to locate a specific title. This is particularly true for older readers, who may strain themselves looking for a specific title, due to having to read the spines and crouch to reach lower rows. This is why we designed the “
- Phoenix Single-Stage-To-Orbit
The Phoenix is a conceptual design for a completely reusable Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) launch vehicle that can carry small payloads or passengers into low earth orbit (LEO).
The small size and high performance are made possible by innovations in propulsion and design.
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