Troy, N.Y. — A handheld device to detect skin cancer and a disposable robot capable of removing land mines are two of the five winning ideas in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s spring 2008 Change the World Challenge contest.

Created to support entrepreneurship education and stimulate ideas to improve the human condition, the competition awards $1,000 cash prizes to innovative ideas and inventions with the potential to make the world a better place. Additionally, substantial financial support and patent application assistance is given to winning student proposals considered to be the “best of the best,” according to Rob Chernow, vice provost for entrepreneurship at Rensselaer and chair of the competition.

“The ultimate goal of the competition is to encourage students to further develop, patent, and fully realize their winning ideas — to evolve their ideas into life-changing inventions and technologies,” says Chernow, who cites Eben Bayer ’07, a winner of the fall 2006 competition, as a participant who took full advantage of the program’s patent support. Bayer developed an environmentally friendly organic insulation and now has a company — Ecovative Design, located in the Rensselaer Incubator Center — where he is commercializing the technology with his business partner, Gavin McIntyre ’07. 

Each semester, students — as individuals or in teams — select a topic from a list of challenges to use science and/or engineering to improve human life, and offer an innovative and sustainable solution to that challenge. Examples of challenges include improving safety and security, and addressing health issues. Submissions are judged on both novelty and feasibility, and up to 10 entries each semester are selected to receive an award. 

Forty proposals, created by more than 100 students, were submitted to this semester’s contest. 

Thirteen students are being recognized as winners of the competition, and will receive funding to pursue provisional patents in addition to the cash prize. The winning ideas are:

• a handheld device equipped with smart technologies with the ability to detect skin cancer in its early stages and store pictures of certain spots on the skin to watch, created by Sara DiNovo.
• an emotional intelligence detection system that uses existing emotional detection technology coupled with wireless networking to help monitor individual mental states, as well as the effects that individuals have on those around them, created by Sam Harrington, Peter Mueller, Christina Storgaard, and Sean Tubbs. Poor emotional intelligence — characterized by misunderstanding and/or ineffectively influencing emotions — affects organizational productivity and employee satisfaction and is estimated to cost over $500 billion annually in the U.S. workforce alone.
• the Tactical Advantage Goggle System (TAGS), a law enforcement device for safely and quickly gaining control in critical incidents. Officers employing the TAGS system would be equipped with a high-powered strobe light that causes disorientation and temporary impairment to suspects. Special goggles allow law enforcement officials to maintain visibility and take action. The device was created by Edward Levie.
• an antibiotic bandage made of honey (a natural antiseptic), rice, and wax paper, for use in parts of the world where individuals either cannot afford or do not have access to proper bandages. Created by Alicia Lin and Richard Willems, the bandages represent an effective method for a natural and safe way to treat wounds at any economic level.
• a small, inexpensive, disposable robot to remove land mines through detonation. These robots would replace the cumbersome, tank-like demining machines presently used, which are quite expensive. The project was developed by Andrew Emhof, Michael Klenigger, Henrik Schou, Justin Schievelbein, and Raymond Ytuarte.

“With innovative ideas ranging from emotional intelligence monitoring systems and bandages made of sustainable materials to safety equipment for law enforcement, robotic land mine removal technologies, and a skin cancer monitoring device, it is clear that there is no limit to the things our students can come up with,” said Chernow. “I congratulate this group of competition winners for their exciting and inspiring ideas, and I look forward to watching them as they truly change the world.”

The Change the World Challenge was created in 2005 by Rensselaer alumnus and entrepreneur Sean O’Sullivan ’85. O’Sullivan earned a B.S. in electrical engineering from Rensselaer, and was a founder and the first president of MapInfo, a global software company headquartered in Troy, N.Y. He has started a number of other companies and organizations, including JumpStart International, an engineering humanitarian organization headquartered in Atlanta, Ga.

About the Campaign
Renaissance at Rensselaer: The Campaign for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, launched in 2004, fuels the Institute’s strategic Rensselaer Plan, and supports groundbreaking interdisciplinary programs which have at their core the technologies driving innovations in the 21st century: biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technology, and experimental media. The campaign aims to build the Institute’s unrestricted endowment, and also seeks funds for endowed scholarships and fellowships, faculty positions, curriculum support, student life programs, and athletic programs and facilities. To date, the effort has raised more than $1.31 billion.