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/2017
2017
This radar imager is based on new COTS microwave based hardware being developed by chip circuit and board developers using COTS hardware being developed currently.
Have you seen videos of people walking with eyes glued to the display on their smart phones oblivious to their immediate surrounding and walking into fountains, subterranean sidewalk elevators and even a bear?
To improve safety by providing situational awareness,
Problem: Microvascular anastomosis is the surgical coaptation of small (sub-centimeter) veins and arteries with the aid of loupe or microscope magnification. Microvascular anastomosis of veins is readily accomplished using a microanastomotic coupling device (Synovis GEM Coupler) which reduces complication rates, improves patency rates, and substantially reduces the time necessary to complete the coaptation compared to manual suturing. 
Imagine the possibilities of a product being designed primarily based upon ease of use and functionality versus battery shape. Well, Battelle’s conformal battery has translated that possibility into reality. Our battery approach allows for the battery to be integrated into the structural components of the final product. By eliminating the mass and volume associated with the outer battery packaging, 
POLYHEDROHELIOTROPE SATELLITE OPTICAL TRACKING
By Panagiotis Stefanides
The proposed model [ PHOTO 1 and 2], when moving in space, is expected to reflect light of Sun rays from its mirrors, which will enable observers on Earth to receive them and track its displacements.
The Polyhedroheliotrope model is based on Invention and Conceptual Design of the “ Generator Polyhedron”
Tinnitus is a serious health condition that can negatively affect a sufferer's quality of life and there is presently no known cure but with perseverance the perception of Tinnitus can be significantly reduced. Tinnitus is a complex audiological and neurological condition, and is most commonly linked to hearing loss of one form or another.
Development of Automobile Lighting System Fault Finding, Testing, Diagnosis and Rectification System
The automobile lighting system consists of lighting and signaling devices mounted or integrated to the front, sides, rear and in some cases the top of a motor vehicle to light the roadway for the driver and increase the conspicuity of the vehicle; allowing other drivers and pedestrians to see a vehicle's presence, position, size, the direction of travel,
Swarm Power & the Power-Blox 200 series
Power-Blox develops, produces and distributes intelligent swarm electrification solutions. It has developed a technology (Swarm Power) which allows the setup of a swarm-grid with a decentralized architecture and no centralized control. The system is self-learning and self-regulating; it regulates power production,
In India, more than 140,000 people died in 2016 due to road accidents. In countries like the USA and China, the numbers are even worse. Many lives could have been saved if the passengers used seat belts and many accidents could have been prevented if the drivers were a bit more alert.
Cast iron automobile brake rotors are heavy and suffer from limited lifetimes and excessive wear in the form of dust. Aluminum (Al) metal matrix composites (MMCs) with ceramic particulate reinforcement such as silicon carbide (SiC) have long been considered as significantly lighter weight, potentially longer lasting and more environmentally favorable automobile brake discs; however,
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