Juniors Daniel Cheng (left) and Danny Ge give a presentation on their Lost and Theft Prevention Device. Photos courtesy Elizabeth Allen (click to enlarge)

Sophomore Adam Joseph (right) helps Task Focus team members Tej Chajed (left) and Gordon Ruan get ready for their presentation. (click to enlarge)

U of I assistant professor Anupam Agrawal (foreground) of the College of Business and his fellow judges listen to the student teams pitch their ideas. (click to enlarge)

URBANA — Tired of having to go through all that annoying blister wrap whenever you buy small electronics?

Well, wouldn’t it be awesome if the products were in an egg-like container so that all you had to do was split open the shell to get your item?

That was one of the ideas that members of Uni's Inventors Club came up with as part of a patent contest called The Invention Competition.

The event, held Feb. 10 at Uni, was sponsored by the University of Illinois chapter of Students in Free Enterprise.

The winners, juniors Amy Ding and Diana Liu, received $190 to cover the cost of patenting their invention, the egg-like EZip method of containing products. (For a description of all four projects, see the list below.)

The competition was open to members of Inventors Club, a student organization sponsored by chemistry teacher David Bergandine.

For the contest, participants were required to form a group consisting of up to two to three people, write a one-page summary of their invention, and give an eight-to-10-minute PowerPoint presentation.

A panel of four judges assessed the ideas. Three of the judges were faculty members from the U of I College of Business: assistant professors of business administration Anupam Agrawal and Janet Bercovitz, and clinical professor of business administration Laura Hollis. The fourth judge was Tim Beckman, manager of the local Sam's Club.

"The Invention Competition was a fun and educational experience for me," said junior Danny Ge, who teamed up with Daniel Cheng to propose a remote-control transmitter device that could locate lost items.

"It allowed me to apply my creativity in a real-world setting by trying to 'sell' the idea to market specialists. The judges were also very encouraging, pointing out that we were doing the exact same thing as their college students."

Another participant, junior Elizabeth Allen, noted the value of having to pitch ideas to an audience.

"Accumulating a mass of research is one thing, but having to present it in front of judges is a lot harder," said Allen, who joined with classmate Eric Fritzsche and sophomore Adam Joseph to propose the Blip Automobile, which runs on a quasi-turbine engine.

"It is pretty nerve-wracking to introduce the 'invention,' because you have no idea how anyone will react. It helped me to realize what kind of things that judges will be looking for, and how much you really have to mentally prepare yourself beforehand."

Bergandine, who has been the Inventors Club sponsor for three years, held the competition for the first time at Uni, with the help of a group of U of I students: sophomores Arpit Kuvadia and Jim Bethune, and freshmen Zach Frey and Sean Litza. All four are members of Students in Free Enterprise.

"Arpit and his friends did a wonderful job organizing and carrying out the program," said Bergandine. "They were also extremely helpful to our students in the weeks prior through their encouragement, instruction, criticism, etc. The student teams did a remarkable job developing and presenting their ideas. Perhaps next year those who participated can share their experience with others here at this school or possibly at other schools."

According to Kuvadia, he first met with fellow U of I club members on Oct. 17 to propose the idea of the competition and gauge interest in it. Because of the great progress and work the students demonstrated, Kuvadia plans on doing the competition again next year with Bergandine.

"Everyone did an amazing job, and really blew my expectations out of the water," said Kuvadia. "With the winning team we would like to work with them to start patenting the idea and see how far we can go from there. With the rest of the competitors we will be following up by giving them an assessment on how they liked it, and have them help the future of the competition."

Kuvadia said he got the idea for the contest from his own high school, Northside College Prep in Chicago.

"The competition at Northside, however, is for a grade and required by all students taking a certain class," he said. "I have spoken to Mr. Bergandine, and both of us want to continue this competition next year, and really try to expand on it."

As for the winners, they are looking forward to the patent process.

"The hands-on work, with guidance from Mr. Bergandine, proved to be a great learning experience," said Ding. "Being announced as winners was a great surprise for me. I really felt that everybody deserved to win. The projects were all phenomenal. However, I'm really glad that all of the hard work paid off. With some more work, I hope that we will be able to successfully patent our design."

The U of I organization Students in Free Enterprise wasted no effort in assembling a stellar panel of judges for the Uni Invention Competition. From left: Anupam Agrawal, assistant professor of business administration, U of I College of Business; "Coach Tim" (Tim Beckman), manager of local Sam's Club; Laura Hollis, clinical professor of business administration, U of I College of Business; and Janet Bercovitz, assistant professor of business administration, U of I College of Business. Photo courtesy Elizabeth Allen (click to enlarge)

Uni Invention Competition Projects at a glance

Project Name: Blip Automobile
Group Members: Sophomore Adam Joseph, juniors Eric Fritzsche, Elizabeth Allen
Project Details: The current problems with transportation are many. Not only are automobiles energy inefficient, they are dangerous and expensive. The Blip automobile, designed to have a quasi-turbine engine, solves all these issues.

Project Name: EZip
Group Members: Juniors Diana Liu, Amy Ding
Project Details: Having to get through wads of blister wrap to reach your newly bought items is a pain in the neck. EZip improves on this by proposing that items be packaged in an egg-like container so that all you have to do is split open the shell to get your item.

Project Name: Lost and Theft Prevention Device
Group Members: Juniors Daniel Cheng, Danny Ge
Project Details: Frustrated with losing things all the time? LOTPD will resolve your issues by providing you with a remote-control transmitter device that can quickly identify misplaced items. You will never lose your cell phone, car keys, or wallet ever again!

Project Name: Task Focus
Group Members: Junior Tej Chajed, senior Gordon Ruan
Project Details: Emphasizing simplicity and control, Task Focus is a program aimed at preventing employees from taking advantage of their work hours at the office. It gives managers full control over their employees by blocking them from accessing distracting Web sites and applications.