A “smart” power strip that boosts energy efficiency, a simple water treatment and sanitation solution for people in developing countries, and a solar-powered brick maker are among the winning ideas in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s spring 2009 Change the World Challenge contest.

Created to support entrepreneurship education and stimulate ideas to improve the human condition, the annual competition awards $1,000 cash prizes to students for developing 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,” said 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. Ecovative has created two new products — Acorn™, a compostable packaging material, and Greensulate™, an organic insulation. The company has also gone on to win numerous other national and international competitions.

Each semester, students select a topic from a list of challenges to use 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 awards.

Thirty-nine proposals, created by 117 students, were submitted to this semester’s contest.

Seventeen students — representing seven teams — were named winners of the competition, and will receive funding to pursue provisional patents in addition to the cash prize. The winning ideas are: 

• A simple power strip with the intelligent functionality of informing consumers of how much power each device in their home is using, when each device is being used, and making automatic adjustments to minimize wasteful power consumption habits. Created by Peter Smith and James Smith.
• A water system that utilizes dew collection as a way to address the lack of clean, fresh water in areas such as North Africa and the Middle East. The dew collecting structure would take up as little ground as possible. The collected dew would run into a gutter system that would carry the dew to a purification system, and the purified, drinkable water would then run into a storage tank. The device was created by Adam Bross, Darryl Brown, Sonike Hendricks, Brian Jennings, Melissa Loeper, Sujata Pal, and Casey Spencer.
• A simple in-home greywater recycling kit that could be installed in new construction, and easily retrofitted to existing homes, developed by Cullen Kasunic. The low-cost system captures water from the shower and uses it to fill the toilet tank. The focus is on indoor water use, conceptual simplicity, and low cost.
• An inexpensive and simple device using forward osmosis technology in combination with renewable energy to provide a feasible water treatment and sanitation device for people in developing countries. Created by Adam Rivard and Brian Werneke, the technology uses a semi-permeable membrane to pull pure water from almost any mixture, such as polluted water, seawater, or even sewage. Additionally, the process uses solar radiation instead of electricity, leaving pure water as the end product with no energy cost to the individuals.
• A system that is capable of utilizing food waste generated by the average family as a way to meet a home’s hot water needs. In its simplest form, the device consists of an insulated chamber with a heat exchanger passing through it. Specialized microbes would digest the family’s food waste, producing heat in the process. The system could also work in conjunction with current hot water systems. The design was created by Brent Solina and Ke Xia.
• A device that would offer effective and discreet safety to individuals who are afraid of falling or unable to contact help in an emergency, created by Katie Malysa. Using a laser, the system could detect vibrations in the floors of homes occupied by elderly persons or individuals with medical conditions that may cause them to fall. The system would be connected to the home’s phone line, so that in the event of an emergency, it would dial out to 911 or a family member. 
• A solar heater, requiring simple assembly, that could rapidly dry clay bricks used in home construction, especially for individuals living in undeveloped areas. The device would produce no emissions and could be used in areas lacking access to combustion materials such as wood or natural gas. The project was developed by James Smith and Benjamin Heintz.

“It is clear that there is no limit to the things our students can come up with,” Chernow  said  “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 bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer, and was a founder and the first president of software firm MapInfo Corp. He has started a number of other companies and organizations, including JumpStart International, an engineering humanitarian organization headquartered in Atlanta.