Big ideas earn prizes at first virtual 性欲社 Arctic Innovation Competition
April 22, 2021
Andrea Miller
907-474-5942
性欲社 School of Management gave out more than $40,000
in cash prizes and awards after the 2021 Arctic Innovation Competition鈥檚 final presentations
Saturday, April 17.
The competition, now in its 12th year, invites innovators to propose new, feasible
and potentially profitable ideas for solving real-life problems and challenges.
The top prize of $10,000 in the main division, for ages 18 and up, was awarded to
Thimira Thilakarathna for his small-scale barley threshing and winnowing machine.
While spending a summer living with former 性欲社 professor and provost Paul Reichardt
and master gardener Terry Reichardt, he saw how they struggled to hand-process the
barley they grow. So he designed and built a blender-sized machine to thresh and winnow
barley for small-scale gardeners.
鈥淚t is great to have this kind of event that is open to kids,鈥 said Thilakarathna,
a graduate student in electrical engineering at 性欲社. 鈥淚 got interested in inventions
as a child because of these types of competitions. My hope is that AIC will keep the
kids excited about developing their ideas.鈥
In the junior division for youth ages 13 to 17 years old, Danika Dawley took home
the first prize of $1,000 for Back-Up Buoy, which enables the retrieval of underwater
fishing gear if it is severed from its primary buoy. If the primary buoy fails, a
simple computer system releases a canister of compressed air into a deflated, submerged
vinyl buoy. The vinyl buoy floats to the surface and allows the retrieval of the attached
equipment.
In the cub division for youth ages 12 and under, Johnathan Verhagen won first place
and $500 for AirDrone Filtr. This idea is designed to address air quality problems
in the Arctic due to temperature inversions that trap pollutants near the ground.
The AirDrone Filtr cleans the air of pollutants, chemicals, toxins and dust using
an ionizer and a HEPA filter.
Top prize and honorable mention winners in the three divisions came from communities
across Alaska 鈥 Anchorage, Fairbanks, Girdwood, Homer, Nenana, Nome, North Pole, Palmer,
Soldotna and Tok. A complete list of winners is available on the .
ON THE WEB:
ADDITIONAL CONTACT: Tammy Tragis-McCook, 907-474-7042, tammy.tragis@alaska.edu