2003 Competition Finalists
The 2002 I2P® Competition attracted 33 teams of which 10 qualified for the finals. The ideas included: a novel water filtering mechanism, an innovative bowling device for the severely disabled, Bioinformatics mechanism for drug target identification, and a device to protect buildings from various vermin. Many of these were based on ongoing graduate research at UT Austin.
For 2003, 73 entries were submitted in the first round of the Competition. It was decided to advance 14 teams and conduct a semifinals round on April 18th, with the top four teams competing for prizes the next day.
The 13 finalists (a team dropped out just before the finals), in alphabetical order, for our 2003 I2P® Competition are as follows:
Big Picture Classgrabber Dasher Communicator FlexPower Insanity-Defense LBC, Inc. PECS Sigma Imaging Inc. Silicon Carbide Evolution Visor Tek WAN Replication Eng. Wireless Parking Auction
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Betalain is a natural antioxidant made by beets, cactus, and
many other plants. These yellow, orange, red, and red-violet pigments become
brown when they quench free radical reactions. Purified, standardized
betalain could be incorporated into foods, cosmetics, or pharmaceuticals as a
freshness indicator. Current expiration date systems simply use age without
considering other causes of product spoilage. Light, heat, metals, oxygen,
age, and microbes all produce free radicals that will cause color change in
betalain. The color of the product will be compared to a similarly colored
label; this color match will correlate with freshness. Jason Avent is a doctoral candidate in botany at the University of Texas at Austin. Neel Naik is a second year Business Honors major at the University of Texas at Austin. Matthew Poplawski is a first year Electrical Engineering student at the University of Texas. |
Big Picture:
The idea presented here exploits an optical illusion to create a periodic image (i.e. a wall-paper pattern) for use as an advertising display. The angle subtended by the periodic image in the viewer’s vision is independent of the distance of the viewer from the source as opposed to a conventional image display whose apparent image size is inversely proportional to the viewing distance. Thus, if a person viewing the periodic image at fifty meters sees an image that takes up ten degrees of his or her vision, when the viewer steps back to one hundred meters, the image will still take up ten degrees of his or her vision.
Andrew Randono is currently a graduate student at the University of Texas pursuing a PhD in Theoretical Physics.
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The Classgrabber Registration Agent is a software agent that
automatically registers university students for the classes they want. When a
class is full, the Registration Agent monitors the class continuously until
it opens up. The Agent can also run unattended, so students can leave it
running while they do other things. In addition, it can automatically
identify and execute swaps between students, allowing the most efficient use
of limited class resources. Chris Lamprecht is working towards undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin. |
Dasher Communicator:
The "Dasher Communicator" is a new assistive communication device. Combining a unique predictive text input system with modern speech synthesis in a handheld form-factor, the result is an easy and efficient multi-lingual digital voice box for the severely disabled.
Vitorio B. Miliano is an undeclared freshman in the College of Liberal Arts.
Consumers own and use all kinds of portable electronic devices on a daily basis, such as cell phones, PDAs, cameras, etc., of which most have rechargeable batteries. In all likelihood there are not two devices in the average person’s possession using the same recharger. FlexPower will work with manufactures and consumers to provide universal recharging devices and ensure that products compatible with the FlexPower standard are brought to market.
Nicholas Holifield is an undergraduate in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.
Insanity-Defense:
Insanity-Defense is an exciting new gaming interaction for any television shows or sports broadcast. Insanity-Defense is an infrared gun that interfaces with televisions and will enable the user to create digital bullet holes (shattered glass) on the screen as if the TV has been shot. Insanity-Defense permits the user to vent their frustrations towards TV shows or sporting events.
John Pullicino is an undergraduate in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, College of Engineering.
LBC Inc.:
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This product is a revolutionary artificial-bone-implant
material called "Load-bearing Bone Ceramic", LBC for short. When artificial
bones made out of LBC are implanted in patients with damaged bones, it leads
to a drastically reduced recovery time because it promotes natural bone
growth in its place, it has high strength for bearing loads and it does not
cause any immune system rejection and yet this material is very cheap. David Javier is a graduate student in the Bio-chemistry department and co-inventor of this technology. Rahul Prashar is a graduate student in the Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, University of Texas at Austin. |
PECS:
The Projectile Enhanced Communication System is a communication solution for urban combat that minimizes danger to deployed troops while remaining secure, reliable, and economically attractive.
Sarosh Wahla is a culture anthropology undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin.
James Zhang is a computer science undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin.
Sigma Imaging Inc.:
Sigma Imaging's novel medical imaging device to capture the contours of a patients face. Rather than taking hours to create a plaster mold, our novel approach allows a face mask to be comfortably and safely created in a matter of minutes. Custom made medical face masks are essential for patients recovering from a variety of medical conditions including severe skin burns, sports injuries and reconstructive surgery. Conventional methods of creating custom face masks require the production of a plaster impression. This molding process is inaccurate, uncomfortable, extremely time consuming and often damaging to the wounds. Sigma Imaging will develop a medical imaging device that generates the data necessary so that custom face masks can be produced in less time, with greater accuracy much cheaper.
Jeff Carpenter is a graduate of Trinity University with a BS in Computer Science. He graduated from Colorado St. with an MS in Computer Science.
Richard Heller is a PhD candidate in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Texas at Austin.
Silicon Carbide Evolution:
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Silicon carbide is one of the world's hardest and most
chemically resistant substances. In fact, silicon carbide is used to cut and
grind the toughest steels. Unfortunately this also makes it extremely
difficult to manufacture or mold into component parts. These factors have
limited silicon carbide's acceptance to high cost structure, high precision
production processes. Si2C Evolution has a novel technology to rapidly
manufacture reaction-bonded silicon carbide parts. You give us a 3-D CAD file
and we ship you your finished part. Metal casting is an enormous industry. Just the industry providing tooling for aluminum die casting, which provides the shape of the finished cast parts, is in excess of $375 Million in the US alone. Our ability to create reaction-bonded silicon carbide means a lower costs, superior material, more design freedom, more complex shapes and an 80% reduction in tooling lead time for casting or permanent mold operation with aluminum and other non-ferrous metals. Si2C Evolution is a manufacturer of dies and tooling for the metal casting industry. Mike Breier is pursuing his MBA at the McCombs school of Business with a focus on Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Scott Evans is pursuing his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, with an emphasis in technology commercialization. Eric Salys is pursuing his MBA at the McCombs school of Business with a focus in marketing. Donnie Vanelli is working on a Ph.D. in Technology Commercialization, College of Engineering, University of Texas at Austin. |
Visor Tek:
Motorcyclists have to use a variety of costly helmet visors depending on the conditions outside. Visor Tek proposes a one-touch system to change your visor from clear to a dark color. Riders will be able to immediately adjust to changing light conditions.
Andrew Augustine is an undergraduate in the College of Engineering.
George Saito is an undergraduate in the College of Engineering.
WAN Replication Eng.:
The WAN replication engine plays an essential role in the realization of the Internet edge services/computing. With the combination of software and proprietary hardware, it provides a powerful and flexible framework to facilitate the highly available and efficient delivery of modern Internet services and distributed applications. This technology replicates the distributed services geographically close to the end customers; therefore, it effectively masks network failures (or congestions) and improves services response time.
Lei Gao Bio is a forth year Ph.D. student at the Computer Sciences Department, College of Natural Sciences.
Wireless Parking Auction:
Lack of current information at our fingertips can affect our financial standing and even our safety. Now, more than ever, people have the tools, such as cell-phones, to connect themselves to the entire world. What’s lacking is a wireless service that interconnects people to make the most of this existing technology. Our real-time wireless structure provides a solution to scarce-resource problems; problems such as finding parking, obtaining a concert ticket, or any update-reliant situation -- all within the grasp of a java enabled cell-phone.
Kaanchan Adhikary is currently pursuing a Computer Science degree at the University of Texas at Austin.
Chris Lamprecht is working towards undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin.