Innocentive and Updates

Hi everyone! I hope your Thanksgiving break is going nicely.  Some updates: Erica, Karina, Fionn, and I recently submitted to the Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards, and were chosen as semifinalists! Our project is a drug testing strip that can be dipped into drinks to avoid unwanted ingestion of drugs.  

As for the Innocentive, it's on making quieter trucks in a city environment.  https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9933270

How can we make trucks quieter?  Post ideas in the comments.

Enjoy the rest of break!

Another Innocentive

Hey everyone! I hope the first quarter went all right (alright? I can never remember) with you.  Here's a new Innocentive challenge to munch on: 

https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9933456

The goal is to develop an environmentally friendly grocery bag/transport method.  They're looking specifically for single use ones.  

Yes, there are existing solutions, but all of them can be improved.  For example, I'm pretty sure Whole Foods uses paper grocery bags instead of plastic.  However paper is not as strong as plastic, and when you make the paper thick enough to be as strong as plastic, it becomes a lot more expensive.

What do you guys think? Post ideas in the comments.

New Innocentive

Hey everyone! This week we've got a new challenge to think about.  This one is an open question so anything is welcome.

Reusing Cotton
How can we reuse cotton materials in an innovative way?  Cotton is a sustainable material except a lot of it is thrown away into landfills where they become useless.  Here's the link to the Innocentive page https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9933196

Comment: what do you think?

Something to think about

Hi guys! We've added a new gadget to the blog, so that you can subscribe to email notifications of new posts.  So everyone should go submit your email to the thing on the right hand side so you don't have to keep checking back for posts.

Here's something to mull over during your glorious four day weekend: Elon Musk, the guy behind SpaceX and a lot of other awesome things, publicized his plans for this strange thing called the Hyperloop in August.  Its purpose was to replace the high speed rail system that California was going to implement between San Francisco and LA.  It's a really radical design, involving a partial vacuum instead of a complete vacuum, and other really cool things.  The Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperloop  is pretty thorough but if you feel like sacrificing sleep for a technical report you can read this: http://www.teslamotors.com/sites/default/files/blog_images/hyperloop-alpha.pdf.

What do you guys think? Is it plausible? Does it actually solve the problem (what is the problem he's trying to solve?)? How can we improve it? Do you love it/hate it? 

Interest Meeting Recap

Hello everyone!
Thanks to everyone who came to the interest meeting! Sorry that it ran over, we hope you didn’t miss anything important. For those of you who couldn’t make it, here’s an overview about what we discussed:

Who we are: We are Hunter’s only club that focuses on inventing, and exploring solutions to real-world problems.  As you probably know, we’re completely online so you don’t have to take time out of your school day to visit our club. The admins of this site are Cheyenne (she was not at the interest meeting yesterday due to a commitment she couldn't get out of, but she’s awesome too!), Erica, and Karina.   

If it’s online… what’s the time commitment?: As much as you want it to be.  We’ll be posting Innocentive challenges for you to chew on each week (more about that later), and there might be time crushes around competition deadlines.  But your time commitment is really up to you-we don’t want to force you guys in any way to do anything you don’t want to.  However, if you do not post for one-two months, you will be automatically removed from the blogspot because we will assume you are not interested anymore. 

What do we actually do then?: Every week/two weeks, we’ll post Innocentive challenges from https://www.innocentive.com/ that we find interesting.  We’ll discuss these challenges in the comment boxes, and if there’s a feasible idea, we will assemble a taskforce to complete the necessary requirements for the challenge.
Also, we plan on submitting to many competitions this year. These include:
1.       Conrad Awards: http://www.conradawards.org/ - focused on creating an invention/prototype.  Note, this is due in less than 2 weeks so if you’re interested, you must form a group with some other people and think fast. If you have any questions, you can message any of the admins. 
2.       Siemens We Can Change the World: http://www.wecanchange.com/ - focused on environmental challenges .  Due later in the year, so it’ll be a separate discussion.
We will post more later, and if you find any others that you would like, feel free to share it with the group!

That’s pretty much all we discussed yesterday.  If you have any lingering questions, comment down below or message any of the admins. Our emails are:

Cheyenne- cheyennehua@gmail.com
Erica- elin6888@yahoo.com
Or Karina- karina.xie@gmail.com

Thanks!

Cheyenne, Erica and Karina

Welcome to Inventors Club!

Hi everyone! Welcome to Inventors Club's online discussion board.  Here is where we primarily discuss problems and think up solutions to them.  

We had a great year last year, submitting to the Spirit of Innovation Challenge (and getting to the semifinalist stage!). We're going to try to submit to slightly more competitions this year and it will definitely be more fun and awesome.  There will be more information at the interest meeting (room 210, Friday Activities October 11 [moved from the 4th due to the 7th grade picnic]).

We'd also like to welcome Mr. Randolph as the new advisor.  He leads Science Bowl, I-Help Liberia, and CSAW, all very successful organizations.  We're honored to have someone with his dedication, expertise, and overall awesomeness join the team this year.

One more important logistics point: in order to maintain the blog's activity and ensure that it will remain a place where great ideas are born, we will instate the following policy. If you do not post or comment in one month, you will be automatically removed from the blog.  This is just to make sure that all members are still reading the posts and are still interested in the club.

We're gonna have an amazing year!  Let's start by having y'all comment on this post to make sure everything is working properly.

Conrad Spirit of Innovation

Hi! As of August 30, the Conrad SOIC is now open! We have a little more than five weeks until Oct. 24, which means we should start brainstorming and drafting a short abstract. Last year, we posited a piezoelectric device as a means of green energy & reduction of subway noise, but we can go anywhere this year. We can stick in the same field (Energy & Environment), or we can delve into other areas of research (Aerospace and Aviation, Cybertechnology and Security, and Health and Nutrition). Regardless, I think a guiding prerequisite should be something that benefits New York City at large and at the same time has global applications. :D

- Karina Xie

New school year...new IC

Hey everyone!
It's another school year, and here are some updates on IC.  We are moving permanently to the web, so all discussions and notifications will come from this blog.  Everyone should receive an email message whenever someone posts or comments.  We won't be having weekly meetings in school, but whenever we're working on a contest and have to write something up, we will meet in person to work.  Be on the alert for updates regarding those.

We will also have a policy to ensure that all members of the blog are contributing.  If you do not post or comment in one month, you will be removed from the blog.  You can say anything, this policy is just to let us know that you are still reading the posts and want to be involved in the club.

I hope we can have another great year this time around! :D

Another Innocentive

Food for thought!

Colder Faster - Turbo Chilling Beverages in Containers

Share this Challenge:  

A technology is required that will enable faster chilling of beverages in their containers or also in secondary packaging- from room temperature to 4 degrees C or less in under 10 minutes!
This Challenge requires only a written proposal. 

Challenge 9933347
Deadline: June 29, 2013
Reward: $15,000

I'm thinking something chemical.  There are a ton of really endothermic reactions we could look into.

More Innocentive Challeges

Hey everyone!
With the end of 3rd quarter comes an unexpected lull (at least for some).  Here are some new Innocentive challenges to munch on the time being:

Cathode Ray Challenge #2: New Uses for Recycled Glass
The Consumer Electronics Association®(CEA), in conjunction with the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), seeks to identify financially viable, environmentally conscious proposals for utilizing recycled Cathode-Ray-Tube (CRT) glass from used televisions and computer monitors.  Key considerations for this Challenge are the fact that the CRT glass contains a significant concentration of lead, and that CEA is particularly interested in receiving submissions proposing uses for this lead-containing glass, as this may lead to the most financially viable solutions.
The Seeker may be interested in pursuing further collaboration with Solvers whose solutions they find promising.

Deadline:July 1, 2013

Reward: $10,000
Note: This challenge only needs a theoretical proposal.  

The following one is a bit different from the ones we normally tackle, but it's still really interesting: 

Innovative and/or Disruptive Products and Technologies 
Procter & Gamble is looking for new products and technologies that can grow sales in traditional or emerging retail channels.  Please submit your non-confidential information on new products and/or technologies that we may evaluate against our needs for potential collaborations with you. 
This is an electronic Request-for-Partners (eRFP) Challenge; the Solver will only need to submit a written proposal to be evaluated by Procter & Gamble with a goal of establishing a collaborative partnership.

Deadline:May 25, 2013

Reward: Varies

Note: This challenge can be in any of these categories--

• Fabric Care
• Home Care (surface and air)
• Family Care (tissue, paper towel, toilet paper)
• Baby Care
• Pet Care
• Battery / Power
• Skin Care
• Hair Care
• Hair Coloring
• Personal Care (body wash, deodorants)
• Cosmetics
• Shave Care (razors & shave preparations)
• Fine Fragrances

 Any thoughts? 
 

Testing

Apparently this isn't working for some people.
Comment on this post if you see it, and also try to write your own post.

Thanks everyone,
Cheyenne

New Innocentive Challenges

Hey everyone!  Hope you're having a nice spring break so far.  
Here are two challenges from Innocentive that I thought were pretty good:

Support Plate Replacement in Humanitarian Air Drops Humanitarian aid drops missions are performed in various locations, populated and unpopulated zones. The current system used, Tri-wall Aerial Delivery System (TRIADS), performs the needed mission, but presents the opportunity for unintended consequences with the residuals from TRIADS; of most concern is the support plate ( called a skid-board) that is used to restrain/support the boxes during transport.  The Air Force is looking for an economical way to replace this skid-board so that when it exits the aircraft it will reduce the opportunity for harm of anyone that is located in the drop area.  We are not interested in parachute attached to the board as this will add complexity and expense to this system. This is an Ideation Challenge with a guaranteed award for at least one submitted solution. Challenge 9932740 Deadline: April 12, 2013 Reward: $8,000 Non-Destructive Quantitative Testing of Adhesive Bond Strength How can we test the mechanical properties of a bond between 2 structures without breaking or damaging the bond or the substrate materials? This challenge is looking for non-destructive testing methods or technologies that will enable accurate prediction of the strength of an adhesive bond between heterogenous materials.  This Challenge requires only a written proposal. Challenge 9933365 Deadline: May 15, 2013 Reward: $20,000 Think about them, post ideas in comments. -Cheyenne

New Stuff

Hey everyone!
We're trying a new method for Inventors Club.  This is a private blog, only open to members of IC.  Try to post something, and if you can't, comment here and let us know.
--Cheyenne and Erica