CSU graduate student wins major national competition for invention
Greg Schroll, an engineering graduate student, invented a new spherical robot with patent protection potential.
November 21, 2008
Spherical robot creation wins student $15,000 prize
Greg Schroll, a graduate student at Colorado State University, was honored Tuesday by the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation for an invention he created as an undergraduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Schroll won a $15,000 prize for his creation of a new spherical robot with potential to drastically advance safety and technology.
Invention has potential for receiving patent protection
The competition specifically recognizes and rewards the innovations, discoveries, and research by college and university students and their advisors for projects leading to inventions that may have the potential of receiving patent protection. Sponsors include the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Abbott Fund, the philanthropic foundation of the global health care company Abbott.
Only two other prizes were awarded in the competition - to a grand prize winner and a graduate student.
Each entry to the competition was judged on originality, process or technology, and potential value and usefulness to society. A dozen finalist teams were announced on Oct. 22; on Nov. 18, they presented their inventions to a panel of nine judges, including seven inductees from the National Inventors Hall of Fame and representatives from the USPTO and Abbott.
New breed of engineering student creates solution with direct societal benefit
"Greg Schroll represents a new breed of mechanical engineering student, not only is he a problem solver, his solutions are truly innovative, and have a direct societal benefit," according to Allan Kirkpatrick, mechanical engineering department chair.
Schroll is a graduate student working with mechanical engineering Professor Dave Alciatore at Colorado State University.
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Learn more about CSU's Department of Mechanical Engineering by visiting http://www.engr.colostate.edu/me.
Contact: Emily Wilmsen
Email: Emily.Wilmsen@colostate.edu
Phone Number: (970) 491-2336
