My idea is to create an application for smartphones which will use phone's GPS and accelerometers to sense and pinpoint the location of potholes. The great challenge there will be how to teach the phone to tell the difference between a pothole and a speed bump or sewer grate.

Why not develop a new lithium-ion battery able to store more energy than its predecessors without overheating? The battery will use a graphite current collector and imide salt in the electrolyte of the battery, which will increase the life of the battery as well as allowing it to withstand high temperatures. The battery will have an energy density of 225 watt hours per kilogram; 50 percent higher than the lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles.

The new smartphone application will be able to customize a mobile device's output to suit the specific hearing needs of the user. Since no one has the same kind of hearing loss, the application will run a simple test to identify the user's particular type of hearing loss across a range of frequencies. The software will then alter the output of the device by turning up the volume on the frequencies the user will mark as difficult to hear.

The idea is to develop carbon-negative bricks made from coal and sewage waste, materials that normally end up in landfills. To make the bricks, the recovered waste material will be mixed with vegetable oil containing glyceride and triglyceride molecules. The bricks will then be heated to break up the glycerides and attach them to the triglycerides, which will form chains of carbon atoms that will surround the particles and bond them to the brick. The manufacturing of the new...

A reusable and inexpensive baby wrap incubator could help save the lives of premature babies born in impoverished nations. The warmer is consists of a wax filled pouch equipped with a heating unit. The heated pouch is placed in the wrap, where it can keep the infant warm for at least 4 hours.

It is known that a basking shark feeds by swimming with its mouth open. The shape of the shark's body plays an important role in its efficiency as a feeder. A pressure differential is created as the shark swims, resulting in lower pressure along the shark's top and helping to draw water out of the shark's gills in a way that allows it to rely on the passive flow of water to feed. Why not design a turbine with the shark's design in mind? Water enters through the first turbine while...

The DNA of E.coli bacteria was found to be a great data storage. Data compressed into chunks can be placed in different cells and easily located later. This new method enables one gram of E. coli to store the same amount of data as 450 two-terabyte hard drives, and can even be used to store images, music, and videos.

New snowshoes will be designed for both walking and sliding, able to switch from snow gripping to snow skies to glide a gentle hill. The snowshoes will consist of a sliding binding with a toe crampon and hinged spike plate. While climbing, the crampon and spikes will provide grip as the binding pivots to provide a natural step. To descend short hills, the binding can be locked into place to deliver stability for turns and the spikes will swing upward to allow for sliding on snow.

A gel will be able to speed the healing and regeneration of bones. The gel will be created by using the adult stem cells that will create a protein to promote bone healing. The stem cells will be incorporated into a gel which is supposed to be inserted into bone fractures in rats, which will help them heal completely in less than two weeks.

The new sunglasses will magnify the screens of bike computers and GPS units, making it easier for cyclists to read the small devices at a glance. The bifocal like sunglasses will incorporate a small magnification area in the inner, lower corner of each lens, which will enlarge the screens without affecting normal vision. They glasses are will be available in three magnification levels and in several frame styles, with either smoke or brown lenses. Some models of the...