Invention of the Year Award
Meet More Of Our Outstanding Faculty and Staff:
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Each year a panel of judges made up of University of Maryland personnel and industry experts selects one winner from groups of finalists in each of three categories: information science, life science and physical science.
Meet the 2010 Recipients
Information Science
Professor Carol Espy-Wilson (ECE/ISR) and research graduate assistant Srikanth Vishnubhotla were recognized for "Multi-Pitch Tracking in Adverse Environments," which addresses a problem that sounds familiar to anyone who has used a cell phone in a public place: background noise. The novel algorithm "cleans up" speech by separating the voices of the primary speakers from their noisy environments. Espy-Wilson plans to develop the technology through her start-up company, OmniSpeech. The technology also can be used to improve sound quality in hearing aids, military sniper and subject identification, and teleconferencing.
Physical Science
"Nano Arrays for Energy Storage," invented by professors Gary Rubloff (materials science and engineering, Maryland NanoCenter, UMERC and ISR) and Sang Bok Lee (chemistry), research assistant Parag Banerjee and others, won in the Physical Science category. Their invention offers high-density energy storage for vehicle and electronic device batteries. The arrays have a capacity that is 10 times higher than available products and can be produced using inexpensive materials. Rubloff and Lee plan to start a company to bring the nano arrays to market.
| Term | Clark School Recipient(s) | Invention | Category |
| 2009 | Martin Peckerar,Neil Goldsman | World's Highest Energy Density Thin-Film Battery. | Physical Science |
| 2009 | Matt Dowling,Srini Raghavan | "nano-velcro" chitosan-based bandage, which could significantly reduce mortality rates among cases with uncontrollable bleeding. | Life Science |
| 2009 | John Baras | A a key exchange system to secure Internet transactions. | Information Science |
| 2008 | Peter Kofinas,Daniel Janiak | Their invention is a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) capable of filtering viruses from the blood. | Life Science |
| 2008 |
Jaydev Desai, S. K. Gupta, Nicholas Pappafotis, Wojciech Bejgerowski |
The group's invention is a robot that can assist surgeons operating on brain tumors. | Physical Science |
| 2007 | Rama Chellappa, Aravind Sundaresan | Markerless Motion Capture, which is a way to analyze and express human motion in mathematical terms. | Information Science |
| 2007 | Marino di Marzo, Amr Baz | Integrating Sensor Monitoring the Allowable Heat Exposure Time for Firefighters. |
Physical Science Runner Up |
| 2005 | Gregory S. Jackson, Bryan W. Eichhorn and Shenghu Zhou | Hydrogen from Hydrocarbon Fuels Without the High Levels of Carbon Monoxide |
Physical Science |
| 2005 | John P. Fisher, Parth Modi, Jennifer Lynn Moreau, and Sachiko Kaihara | Biomaterials for Tissue Engineering that Avoid Premature Degradation |
Life Science |
| 2005 | Maria I. Klapa, Harin Kanani | Metabolomics Technology for Highly Accurate and Simultaneous Measurement of Hundreds of Metabolites in Biological Systems |
Information Science |
| 2004 | Pamela Ann Abshire, Benjamin Shapiro, Elisabeth Smela (9) | Cell Sensor Based Pathogen Detection |
Physical Science |
| 2004 | K.J. Ray Liu, Zoltan Safar, Weifeng Su | Coding Techniques for Maximum Achievable Diversity in Space, Time and Frequency for Broadband Wireless Communications |
Information Science |
| 2003 | Suneel Ismail Sheikh, Darryll J. Pines | Navigation Using X-Ray Sources |
Physical Science |
| 2003 | Ashok K. Agrawala | Horus: An RF-Based Location Determination System |
Information Science |
| 2002 | Balakumar Balachandran, Miao Yu, Moustafa Al-Bassyioumi | Fiber Tip-Based Fiber Optic Sensor System |
Physical Science |
| 2002 | Peter Sandorn, Pameet Singh | Mitigation of Obsolescence Cost Analysis (MOCA) |
Information Science |
| 2001 | Peter Kofinas, Steven Bullock, Sufi Ahmed | Controlled Room Temperature Synthesis of Polymer-Templated Magnetic Nanoparticles |
Physical Science |
| 2000 | Ashok K. Agrawala (1) | PinPoint Technology: Locating and Synchronizing Mobile Wireless Nodes |
Information Science |
| 1999 | Aristos Christou (2) | PLZT Spatial Phase Modulator |
Physical Science |
| 1999 | Christopher Davis | Polarization and Wavelength Diversity for Fade Resistance in Optical Wierless Communication Systems |
Information Science |
| 1998 | Nariman Farvardin (3) | Method and Apparatus for Compressing and Decompressing Images |
Information Science |
| 1997 |
James Hendler (4) |
Parka-DB™ |
Physical Science |
| 1996 | Kawthar A. Zaki | Rilter Realizations Using New Transmission Media |
Physical Science |
| 1996 | Mahammad Moddares (5) | Software-Based Expert System for Assessing and Monitoring of Nuclear Power Plants |
Information Science |
| 1995 | James Sirkis, Harmeet Singh | Fiber Optic Three Strain Sensor |
Physical Science |
| 1994 | John Baras, Aaron Falk, Timothy Kirkwood, Brian Johnson, Anthony Ephremides (6) | A System Design for a Hybrid Network Data Communications Terminal Using Asymmetric TCP/IP to Support Internet Applications |
Physical Science |
| 1994 | Ben Shneiderman (7) | University of Maryland Widget Library™ |
Information Science |
| 1987 | Ben Shneiderman (8) | Touch Screen Finger Mouse |
None (single award) |
(1) Also awarded A. Shankar (CMPS), Ronald Larsen (OIT), and Douglas Szajda
2) Also awarded Maria Linnik
(3) Also awarded Eiji Atsumi
(4) Also awarded Killian Stoffel, Merwyn Taylor
(5) Also awarded Seyed Mohammad Hadavi
(6) Also awarded Danield Friedman, Narin Suphasindhu, Douglas Dillon
(7) Also awarded Richard Chimera, Marko Teittinen, Ninad Jog, David Carr, Harsha Kumar
(8) Also awarded Richard Potter
(9) Also awarded Denis Wertz (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins)