Each year a panel of University of Maryland personnel and industry experts selects one winner from groups of finalists covering for each of three categories: information science, life science, and physical science.
2018 Invention of the Year winners include Clark School researchers Liangbing Hu, Yubing Zhou, Chaoji Chen, and Teng Li as well as Robert Foster (Executive Vice President of Development, Trinity Rail Group).
During the spring semester, UM Ventures hosts the Invention of the Year Awards to honor university inventors and inventions from the previous year. Clark School faculty members, researchers, and students are regular recipients in the three invention categories.
| Term | Recipient(s) | Invention | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Teng Li, Bo Chen, and Shuangshuang Jing | Eco-Friendly Composite-Based Water Harvesting System From Air | Overall Physical Sciences |
| 2023 | Po-Yen Chen, Tianle Chen, and Liangbing Hu, Herbert Rabin | Programmable Creation of All-Natural Plastic Substitutes | Information Sciences |
| 2023 | YuHuang Wang, Daniel Heller and Mijin Kim, Anand Jagota, and Ming Zheng | Detection of Ovarian Cancer via the Spectral Fingerprinting of Quantum-Defect-Modified Carbon Nanotubes in Serum by Machine Learning | Life Sciences |
| 2023 | Uday Saha and Edo Waks | Low Noise Quantum Frequency Conversion Scheme for Trapped Ion Quantum Network | Quantum |
| 2022 | Cheng Gong | 2D Materials-Based Nanosensors for Rapid Monitoring of Meat Freshness |
Overall |
| 2022 | Srinivasa Raghavan and Leah K. Borden | Suture-free Repair for Surgery, Cuts and Wounds | Life Sciences |
| 2018 | Christopher Monroe, Guide Pagano, Paul Hess, Harvey Kaplan, Wen Lin Tan, and Philip Richerme | Cryogenic Ion Trapping and Storage System for Quantum Information | Overall |
| 2018 | Liangbing Hu, Yubing Zhou, Chaoji Chen, Teng Li, and Robert Foster | Strong and Tough Graphite-Paper Composites | Physical Sciences |
| 2018 | Chi-Hun Park and Bhanu Telugu | Novel Method of Internal Organ Generation For Therapy and Research in Humans and Animals | Life Sciences |
| 2018 | Amitabh Varshney, Sarah Murthi, Gary Schwartzbauer, and Xuetong Sun | Augmented Reality Enabled Catheter | Information Sciences |
| 2017 | Alireza Khaligh, Jiangheng Lu, and Ayan Mallik | Integrated Power Electronics Interface for Enhanced Electric Vehicle Charging | Physical Sciences |
| 2017 | Ryan Huiszoon, Pradeep Rajasekaran, and Reza Ghodssi | Flexible Urinary Catheter Insert to Detect and Prevent Bacterial Infections | Life Sciences |
| 2017 | Rajeev Ranjan, Carlos Castillo, and Ramalingam Chellappa | Robust System for Large Scale Facial Verification and Search | Information Sciences |
| 2016 | Charles Thomas Harry and Nancy Gallagher | Cyber Disruption Index and Framework | Information Sciences |
| 2016 | John T. Patton | Rotavirus and Norovirus Dual Vaccine | Life Sciences |
| 2016 | Steven Anlage, Frank Cangialosi, Tyler Grover, Scott Roman, Liangcheng Tao, and Andrew Simon | A New Method for Remote Wireless Power Delivery | Physical Sciences |
| 2015 | Ramalingam Chellappa, Rajeev Ranjan, and Vishal Patel (Ph.D. ’10) | New Advancements in Face Detection Technology | Information Sciences |
| 2015 | Scott Walsh and Lila Kashi1 | A New Vaccine for Leukemia | Life Sciences |
| 2015 | Chunsheng Wang and Liumin Suo2 | Safer and More Affordable Energy Storage | Physical Sciences |
| 2014 | Min Wu | Verifying the Source of Video Streams Using Electric Network Frequency (ENF) Signals | Information Sciences |
| 2014 | Javier Atencia-Fernandez | A Groundbreaking New Bacteria Detection Method for Testing Complex Food Samples | Life Sciences |
| 2014 | Gary Rubloff and Sang Bok Lee (Chemistry) | A Revolutionary, High Energy Density Nanopore Battery | Physical Sciences |
| 2013 | K.J. Ray Liu, Feng Han, Yu-Han Yang, Beibei Wang, and Yongle Wu | Time-Reversal Division Multiple Access for Wireless Broadband Communications | Information Sciences |
| 2013 | Donald DeVoe and Omid Rahmanian | Method for Rapid, Inexpensive Prototyping of Microfluidic Devices | Physical Sciences |
| 2012 | Min Wu, Ravi Garg, Avinah L. Varna | Environmental Signatures for Forensic Analysis and Alignment of Media Recordings | Information Sciences |
| 2011 | K.J. Ray Liu, Nathan Goergen, Wan-Yi Lin | Active Sensing for Dynamic Spectrum Access | Information Sciences |
| 2011 | Silvia Muro, Rasa Ghaffarian | Targeted Carriers for Drug Delivery Across the Gastrointestinal Epithelium | Life Sciences |
| 2011 | Ichiro Takeuchi, Manfred Wuttig, Jun Cui, Yiming Wu | Thermoelastic Cooling | Physical Sciences |
| 2009 | Martin Peckerar, Neil Goldsman | World's Highest Energy Density Thin-Film Battery. | Physical Sciences |
| 2009 | Matt Dowling, Srini Raghavan | "nano-velcro" chitosan-based bandage, which could significantly reduce mortality rates among cases with uncontrollable bleeding. | Life Sciences |
| 2009 | John Baras | A a key exchange system to secure Internet transactions. | Information Sciences |
| 2008 | Peter Kofinas, Daniel Janiak | Their invention is a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) capable of filtering viruses from the blood. | Life Sciences |
| 2008 | Jaydev Desai, S. K. Gupta, Nicholas Pappafotis, Wojciech Bejgerowski | The group's invention is a robot that can assist surgeons operating on brain tumors. | Physical Sciences |
| 2007 | Ramalingam Chellappa, Aravind Sundaresan | Markerless Motion Capture, which is a way to analyze and express human motion in mathematical terms. | Information Sciences |
| 2007 | Marino di Marzo, Amr Baz | Integrating Sensor Monitoring the Allowable Heat Exposure Time for Firefighters. | Physical Sciences Runner Up |
| 2005 | Gregory S. Jackson, Bryan W. Eichhorn and Shenghu Zhou | Hydrogen from Hydrocarbon Fuels Without the High Levels of Carbon Monoxide | Physical Sciences |
| 2005 | John P. Fisher, Parth Modi, Jennifer Lynn Moreau, and Sachiko Kaihara | Biomaterials for Tissue Engineering that Avoid Premature Degradation | Life Sciences |
| 2005 | Maria I. Klapa, Harin Kanani | Metabolomics Technology for Highly Accurate and Simultaneous Measurement of Hundreds of Metabolites in Biological Systems | Information Sciences |
| 2004 | Pamela Ann Abshire, Benjamin Shapiro, Elisabeth Smela3 | Cell Sensor Based Pathogen Detection | Physical Sciences |
| 2004 | K.J. Ray Liu, Zoltan Safar, Weifeng Su | Coding Techniques for Maximum Achievable Diversity in Space, Time and Frequency for Broadband Wireless Communications | Information Sciences |
| 2003 | Suneel Ismail Sheikh, Darryll J. Pines | Navigation Using X-Ray Sources | Physical Sciences |
| 2003 | Ashok K. Agrawala | Horus: An RF-Based Location Determination System | Information Sciences |
| 2002 | Balakumar Balachandran, Miao Yu, Moustafa Al-Bassyioumi | Fiber Tip-Based Fiber Optic Sensor System | Physical Sciences |
| 2002 | Peter Sandorn, Pameet Singh | Mitigation of Obsolescence Cost Analysis (MOCA) | Information Sciences |
| 2001 | Peter Kofinas, Steven Bullock, Sufi Ahmed | Controlled Room Temperature Synthesis of Polymer-Templated Magnetic Nanoparticles | Physical Sciences |
| 2000 | Ashok K. Agrawala4 | PinPoint Technology: Locating and Synchronizing Mobile Wireless Nodes | Information Sciences |
| 1999 | Aristos Christou5 | PLZT Spatial Phase Modulator | Physical Sciences |
| 1999 | Christopher Davis | Polarization and Wavelength Diversity for Fade Resistance in Optical Wireless Communication Systems | Information Sciences |
| 1998 | Nariman Farvardin6 | Method and Apparatus for Compressing and Decompressing Images | Information Sciences |
| 1997 | James Hendler7 | Parka-DB™ | Physical Sciences |
| 1996 | Kawthar A. Zaki | Rilter Realizations Using New Transmission Media | Physical Sciences |
| 1996 | Mohammad Moddares8 | Software-Based Expert System for Assessing and Monitoring of Nuclear Power Plants | Information Sciences |
| 1995 | James Sirkis, Harmeet Singh | Fiber Optic Three Strain Sensor | Physical Sciences |
| 1994 | John Baras, Aaron Falk, Timothy Kirkwood, Brian Johnson, Anthony Ephremides9 | A System Design for a Hybrid Network Data Communications Terminal Using Asymmetric TCP/IP to Support Internet Applications | Physical Sciences |
| 1994 | Ben Shneiderman10 | University of Maryland Widget Library™ | Information Sciences |
| 1987 | Ben Shneiderman11 | Touch Screen Finger Mouse | None (single award) |
1 Also awarded: Scott Durum, Julie Hixon, and Wen Qing Li (National Cancer Institute)
2 Also awarded: Kang Xu, Oleg Borodin, and Arthur V. Cresce (U.S. Army Research Laboratory)
3 Also awarded: Denis Wertz (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins)
4 Also awarded: A. Shankar (CMPS), Ronald Larsen (OIT), and Douglas Szajda
5 Also awarded: Maria Linnik
6 Also awarded: Eiji Atsumi
7 Also awarded: Killian Stoffel, Merwyn Taylor
8 Also awarded: Seyed Mohammad Hadavi
9 Also awarded: Danield Friedman, Narin Suphasindhu, Douglas Dillon
10 Also awarded: Richard Chimera, Marko Teittinen, Ninad Jog, David Carr, Harsha Kumar
11 Also awarded: Richard Potter