For the last twenty-one years the Collegiate Inventors Competition has recognized and honored student inventors whose inventions one day could make significant contributions to society. This year over $75,000 in cash prizes will be awarded to the winning undergraduate and graduate students and their advisors. 

 The deadline for the 2011 Competition is June 24.   Entries are judged on their originality, their potential impact on society, and the level of student initiative.    Expert judges select up to 12 finalists who receive an all-expense paid trip to the final judging round and awards ceremony in Washington D.C., held in the fall.  National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductees participate in the final round of judging and have included Thomas Fogarty, inventor of the balloon embolectomy catheter; George Smith, 2009 Nobel Prize recipient and inventor of the charge-coupled device; and James West, inventor of the electret microphone.  

 Alice Chen, a 2010 Graduate winner from the Harvard/MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program says that “participating in the Collegiate Inventors Competition was a phenomenal experience from beginning to end… it was a chance to get real-time feedback from engaged scientific and patent experts on both technical and commercial aspects of my work and above all, it was an opportunity to share my mutual passion for invention with other equally passionate students.” 

Sponsors of the 2011 Competition include the Abbott Fund and the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Entry forms and more information on the program are available at www.invent.org/collegiate.