What participants say …
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Hoopla Rack,
third place and $4,000,
2008 Schoofs Prize for Creativity;
third place and $700,
Tong Prototype Prize;
and Younkle Best Presentation Award
“Through the whole process, I actually began to see my design turn into a prototype, and now my prototype might actually become a patented reality. By the end, I was so happy that I had chosen to take a chance on myself and do something that brought my engineering and hooping life together.”
—Danielle McIntosh
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Pen Smart,
$1,000 Judges’ Award for Special Merit,
2008 Schoofs Prize for Creativity
“I thought of this product two years ago—I wrote it down and kind of forgot about it for awhile. And I realized that if I didn’t do it, I’d always regret it, so I just decided to pursue it. The competition is a great outlet for anyone interested in innovation and development. The experience gives you the tools to develop the idea and the confidence to continue.”
—Daniel Gartenberg
Innovators in the news …
articles about past competitors
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This student invention competition is open to all UW-Madison undergraduate students. Please join us! Find out how to develop your devices or processes and create a prototype. You can also learn about intellectual property rights to protect your ideas.
The INNOVATION DAYS ceremony is free and open to the public.
Schoofs Prize for Creativity
First Prize: $10,000
Second Prize: $7,000
Third Prize: $4,000
Fourth Prize: $1,000
Tong Prototype Prize
First Prize: $2,500
Second Prize: $1,250
Third Prize: $700
Younkle Best Presentation Award: $1,000
Sorenson Design Notebook Award: $1,000
Registration for the 2009 competition is OPEN.
- Registration for the 2008 competition closes Friday, Oct. 10, 2008.
- Ideafests: September 2008
- Final entry submission deadline: Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 4:30 p.m., 429 Wendt Library
- Competition: Thursday, Feb. 12, 8 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Friday , Feb. 13, 2009, 8 a.m. to noon, if an additional day is necessary.
REGISTRATION FOR THE 2009 COMPETITION IS OPEN AND CLOSES OCT. 10, 2008. FILL OUT THE APPLICATION FORM.
Frequently Asked Questions
Deadlines, team members, class projects, prototypes, and more.
Contest Rules
Please consult the contest rules for important instructions.
Resources
These reports have been reprinted by permission of the authors for use by competition participants:
- Five Steps for Profiling the Market for Your Invention by Matthew Younkle, Adobe Acrobat PDF
- Analyst Report by irasia.com. Adobe Acrobat PDF
- Powerpoint presentation from Schoofs seminar about patents and intellectual property
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CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2008 PARTICIPANTS
2008 Prize Winners:
Complete list
Entrants
Accessible Incontinence Device, a catheterized system to sense bladder pressure and control urine flow to prevent incontinence (Arin Ellingson, Marty Grasse, Ben Schoepke, Jon Sass and Dave Schurter).
Adaptive Sailing Seat, a boat-mounted seat that enables amputees, paraplegics or quadriplegics to participate in sailing activities (Kyle Satula, Pat Severson, Carl Vogt, Kevin Jimenez and Meg Reinbold).
Bug Whapper, a tractor-towed farming tool that removes beetles from potato plants (James Bridwell, Rebecca Hager, Alan Klein, Mike Kolden and Rachel Spartz).
Hoopla Rack, a system for transporting hula hoops via bicycle (Danielle McIntosh).
Ice Pod, a portable device to measure ice thickness on a body of water so the user can determine safety (Matt Hemke, Dustin Jepperson, Matt Orton, Bala Shanmugham and Alyssa Skulborstad).
Lace Master, a machine that enables an injured or disabled person to tie their shoes tightly with just one hand (Ross Borchardt, Leah Holmes, Jacob Mikulsky, Dave Moseler and Mike Vioski).
Laptop Case-to-Desk, a laptop case that can expand into a sturdy desk up to 46 inches in height (Scott Hollander, Tyler Cramer and Kenny Kearney).
Pen Smart, an ergonomic writing utensil that includes multiple writing tips, such as ball-point and felt-tip (Daniel Gartenberg).
Portable Refrigerated Beverage Dispenser, a lightweight, self-contained unit for transporting, cooling and dispensing a keg (Kyle Hanson).
Runway Rescuer, a device to remove aircraft with flat tires from the runway (Becky Broberg, Zach Courter, Dan Kuehn, Peter Shafe and Rob Wilson).
SafeSled, an inflatable sled for evacuating people with physical disabilities during an aircraft emergency (Matthew Kuhns, Elliot Locke, Firdaus Nandoliya and Mike Wald).
Vertical Dish Rack, a space-saving vertical unit for air-drying and storing dinnerware and flatware (Victor Moy, David Moya and Chor Vang).
Whip-Up Tip-Up, a wind-powered device that prevents an ice-fishing hole from refreezing and alerts anglers when a fish is caught (Max Salick, Ryley Karl, Annie Ruel, Douglas Jensen and Steven Faulkner).
Zipper Lock, a lock that prevents a single-slide zipper from opening for theft determent (Victor Moy, David Moya and Chor Vang).
Past Winners
| 2008 | 1st Prize — Accessible Incontinence Device |
| 2007 | 1st Prize — Ladder Cat |
| 2006 | 1st Prize — Concentrating Solar Collector for Direct Vapor Generation, Water Heating and Electricity Generation |
| 2005 | 1st Prize — Firesite |
| 2004 | 1st Prize — Ice Net X |
| 2003 | 1st Prize — Visual Flow Regime Detection System |
| 2002 | 1st Prize — Check-Meter Accelerometer |
| 2001 | 1st Prize — Automatically Pressurizing Water Gun |
| 2000 | 1st Prize — TankMate |
| 1999 | 1st Prize — Concentrating Spectrum-Splitting Solar Photovoltaic System |
| 1998 | 1st Prize — Turbo Mule |
| 1997 | 1st Prize — Urilet |
| 1996 | 1st Prize — Turbo Tap |
| 1995 | 1st Prize — Collapsible land yacht/iceboat |
