Student team from CU wins international prize for top invention of the year

By David Brand

Two Cornell graduate students and a researcher have won a top prize in the 2003 Collegiate Inventors Competition for building an ultra-small electronic generator. Their award of $25,000 was presented at a ceremony at the New York Public Library, in Manhattan, Oct. 23.

The three are applied physics student Keith Aubin, mechanical engineering student Robert Reichenbach and research associate Maxim Zalalutdinov. Their advisers on the project, Harold Craighead, Cornell professor of applied and engineering physics, and Jeevak Parpia, Cornell professor of physics, shared a $5,000 prize.

The winners were invited to the New York Stock Exchange Oct. 24 to ring the exchange's famous opening bell.

The three student researchers won for building a tiny, novel frequency generator out of silicon. This work is part of the interdisciplinary research activity of the Cornell Center for Materials Research, funded by the National Science Foundation. The research is important in making ever-smaller electronic circuits, which, especially in telecommunications, is frustrated by the difficulty in making certain types of components.

"The research of this winning team represents a novel device concept utilizing the physical properties of materials at the nanoscale," said Craighead. "It is gratifying to see the innovation and hard work of Cornell students and researchers recognized and rewarded." Nanoscale refers to work on small-size systems approaching the molecular level.

The trio's generator is shaped like a dome and is one-hundredth the thickness of a human hair. Because it is compatible with conventional chip-manufacturing technology, the invention could replace some of the largest, most expensive parts in cell phones, computers, radios and television sets. The work has resulted in patents being filed, and licensing of the technology is under discussion with commercial groups.

On Oct. 22 the 15 teams in the competition finals made their presentations before a panel of eight judges, including representatives from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, which, with Hewlett-Packard Co. are sponsors of the competition. The finalists were selected from 155 entries from universities around the world. Five entries were selected as winners, two graduate and two undergraduate teams, and a grand prize winner, Jamie Link of the University of California-Santa Barbara, for programmable silicon particles.

The Collegiate Inventors Competition is designed to encourage college students to be active in science, engineering, mathematics and technology and rewards students and their advisers for projects leading to inventions that can be patented. The competition was started by the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1990.