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ISN Director Ned Thomas, ISN SDC Coordinator Kurt Keville
(from left), and GEN Benjamin Griffin and USMA
SDC Coordinator LTC Carl Fossa (from right)
flank
Radiant Flux members Justin Holland, Gary Long, and Chandan
Das (left to right with trophy).
MIT’s Team Radiant Flux Takes
First Prize in Soldier Design Competition for Portable Water
Purifier
“You make a difference,” said GEN Benjamin Griffin
in his introductory remarks to the crowd assembled for the
Finals of the 3rd Annual Soldier Design Competition, sponsored
by MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN). “You
make a difference to young men and women around the world.” Judging
from the quality of the presentations seen Wednesday, March
1, competitors from MIT and the U.S. Military Academy (USMA)
at West Point have taken the lessons of history to heart.
Chandan Das (course 2, ’06 ), Justin Holland (course
2, ’06 ), Adam Leeb (course 2, ’07 ), and Gary
Long (Associate Staff, Lincoln Labs) of team Radiant Flux
took home bragging rights, and the Raytheon first place award
of $5,000, for designing and building a water purifier that
sterilizes 1 liter of water in less than 1 minute using ultraviolet
light. Both robust and inexpensive, the device is truly portable,
easy to maintain, and sustainable within a supply chain.
It employs a hand crank to power the UV bulb.
The L3 Communications second place award of $3,000 went
to team EVCO, also from MIT, which harnessed the waste heat
of an automobile engine to distill water. Team Battle Beacon
of USMA won the $2,000 General Dynamics C4 Systems award
for creating a GPS unit that is usable with current radio
communications systems, while the $2,000 Foster-Miller prize
went to the MIT students of team Safety Blast, who created
an enhanced, lightweight polycarbonate material designed
to augment the Army’s Interceptor Body Armor system
by protecting lower risk areas of the body. West Point’s
JoeProof team took home the $2,000 Lockheed Martin award
for an improved door breaching tool, and MIT Team WaveMaster
was awarded the $2,000 Boeing prize for a height and velocity
sensor to improve the accuracy of cargo airdrops.
The $1,000 Director’s Award for Innovation, presented
by Prof. Ned Thomas, Director of the ISN and Head of the
Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, went
to the MIT undergraduates of team HydrAlert, who designed
a device to monitor the hydration of Soldiers in the field.
The Competition was judged by a distinguished panel of representatives
of academia, entrepreneurship, industry, and the military.
These judges included Prof. Mert Flemings (course 3), Prof.
Hank Smith (course 6), Sycamore Networks founder Desh Deshpande,
and ethernet pioneer Bob Metcalfe, all of whom were impressed
by the innovative approaches used to create near-term solutions
for problems faced by the modern Soldier.
Past competitors have gone on to seek patents on their inventions,
receive small business innovation research grants, and compete
in the MIT $50K Entrepreneur Competition.
The MIT Soldier Design Competition is sponsored using funds
donated by Raytheon, L3 Communications, Boeing, Foster-Miller,
General Dynamics C4 Systems and Lockheed Martin to the Institute
for Soldier Nanotechnologies, a multidisciplinary research
center established at MIT in 2002 by a $50 million, five-year
contract with the U.S. Army. The goal is to offer the Soldier
of the
future unprecedented advances in survivability through cutting-edge
nanotechnology. The
ISN’s research focuses largely on materials and devices
that will better protect the Soldier from
ballistic, chemical, and biological threats.
Summary of Competition Results:
Raytheon Award of $5,000
Team: Radiant Flux
Team members: Chandan Das, Justin Holland, Adam Leeb, and
Gary Long (MIT)
Invention: Water Purifier Using Ultraviolet Light
L3 Communications Award of $3,000
Team: EVCO
Team members: Stephen Samouhos, Corey Fucetola, James Iabuz,
and Kevin Mears
(MIT)
Invention: Vehicle-Mounted Water Distillation Unit
Boeing Award of $2,000
Team: WaveMaster
Team members: Kyle Vogt, Jeremy Conrad, and Grant Jordan (MIT)
Invention: Height and Velocity Sensor for Cargo Drops
Foster-Miller Award of $2,000
Team: Safety Blast
Team members: Nick Tsui, Adam Mulliken, Joe Walish, Jacque
Tio, and Phil Vogel (MIT)
Invention: Improved Polycarbonate for Transparent Armor Systems
General Dynamics Award of $2,000
Team: Battle Beacon
Team members: Matt Sherburne, Terrel Culp, and COL Barry
Shoop (USMA)
Invention: In-line GPS System for Radio Communications Devices
Lockheed Martin Award of $2,000
Team: JoeProof
Team members: John McCaskey, Matt Wilcoxen, Jimmy Holloway,
and Tom Cai (USMA)
Invention: Enhanced Breaching Tool
Director’s Award of $1,000:
Team: HydrAlert
Team members: Luis Alvarez, David Kaufman, Joshua Lake, and
Irina Shklyar (MIT)
Invention: Hydration Monitor
For more information about any aspect of the Competition,
please email us at soldierdesign@mit.edu.
Back to Competition main page.
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