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With the rise of open-source software and hardware, 3-D printing, and crowdfunding, it’s easier than ever to be a maker. Over the past year, some inventors have created potentially world-changing projects.
Popular Science wants to celebrate these amazing builders, tinkerers, and DIY enthusiasts. That’s why we’re featuring them in our annual Invention Awards issue. And to find the best of the best, we need you to submit your amazing creations.
We want to know about game-changing innovations developed by independent inventors (not big corporate R&D labs). We’re looking for people who are designing revolutionary tools, crowdfunding fantastically useful gadgets, or building life-saving products and technologies. Their creations solve real-world problems in interesting and original ways.
Enter the ninth annual Popular Science Invention Awards by filling out our entry form at popsci.com/inventionawardsform. And if you have friends who might want to enter, please share this post (popsci.com/inventionawards2015).
From these entries, our editors will select 10 finalists to be featured in Popular Science, the world’s largest science and technology magazine, and on our website—an audience of many millions, plus those of TV, radio, and web shows that often highlight our finalists.
Before submitting, please carefully read our rules below, and note that our entry form will close after 11:59pm ET on December 1, 2014.
Rules:
- There is no fee to submit, and there are no prizes.
- Inventions must be the work of independent inventors or small teams.
- Inventions must be new, not just minor tweaks to existing objects or processes.
- There must be a working prototype, or some demonstration that an invention works.
- Inventions on their way to becoming commercial products are welcome, but they can’t already be for sale (or have shipped preorders or rewards, as in the case of crowdfunding) before April 2015.
Previous Winners:
- 8th Annual Invention Awards (2014)
- 7th Annual Invention Awards (2013)
- 6th Annual Invention Awards (2012)
- 5th Annual Invention Awards (2011)
Guidelines and tips:
- An invention should be poised to create a market or disrupt an existing one—not be a solution in search of a problem.
- Pictures of or relating to your invention are worth a thousand words (and videos even more!).
- We love inventions that are physical objects and are highly visual, not abstract processes or concepts (e.g. computer code). This helps us show off the winners in print and online.
- Popular Science will not publish an entry without notifying the inventor first. As part of our rigorous vetting and fact-checking process, we will also contact outside experts to verify the technology and significance of the invention prior to publication.
- Intellectual property (IP) protection is the responsibility of the entrant.
The sooner you submit, the better your chances. The entry form closes after 11:59pm ET on December 1, 2014, but we start compiling the candidates… now!
