Public Invention normally does not pay Inventors or Invention Coaches for their intellectual work. (On occasion we pay inventors for manual labor, such as soldering boards together or fabricating parts, as we would if we ordered those services from non-volunteers.) Recognition of their valuable time and intellectual effort is therefore of the utmost importance. Our volunteers give of the best of themselves to the whole world.
The highest award we offer is the annual "Best Public Inventor". Although the Invention Coaches who manage our projects are the most important people to the growth and success of the project, we recognize the inventors themselves as the heart of Public Invention. Occasionally, we recognize people in allied organizations who are not volunteers for Public Invention due to their extraordinary impact in promoting Public Invention.
The award is commemorated by an engraved brass plaque on cherrywood.
2022 Award Winners
Forrest Lee Erickson
Best Public Inventor, 2022
For the General Purpose Alarm Device
Lawrence Kincheloe
Best Invention Coach, 2nd Place, 2022
For the General Purpose Alarm Device
Victor Suturin
Best Invention Coach, 2022
For the PolyVent Educational Platform
Nathaniel Bechard
Best Public Inventor, 2nd Place, 2022
For the PolyVent Educational Platform
Megan Cadena
Best Paid Staff Contribution, 2022
For Outreach Coordination
Miriam Castillo
Best Volunteer Staff Contribution, 2022
For Volunteer Recruitment
Veronica Stuckey
Best Academic Paper, 2022
For “Passive Ferrofluid One-way (Check) Valve”
Geoff Mulligan
Best External Expertise, 2022
For NASA MCOG Extensions
Antal Zuiderwijk
Best Mechanical CAD Design, 2022
For PolyVent
Avinash Baskaran
Best External Ambassador, 2022
For creating the Auburn PIHE
Victoria Jaqua
Most Active Board Member, 2022
For GOSQAS
Sabia Abidi
Most Active Board Member, 2nd Place, 2022
For PolyVent Evaluation and University Relations
Annual Awards 2021
Nathaniel Bechard
Best Public Inventor, 2021
For the PolyVent
Victor Suturin
Best Invention Coach, 2021
For the PolyVent
Sabia Abidi
Most Active Board Member, 2021
For RespiraCon II and Mentoring Opportunities
Veronica Stuckey
Best New Public Inventor, 2021
For the Passive Ferrofluid Check Valve
Leith Greenslade
Special Recognition, 2021
For RespiraCon II and Organizing Demand
Marc T. Jones
Honorable Mention Board Member, 2021
For the Sunlight Regulatory License
Lauria Clarke
Best Addition to a Research Paper, 2021
For “VentMon: An open source inline ventilator
tester and monitor.”
Ben Coombs
H.M. Addition to a Research Paper, 2021
For “Open-source hardware and the great
ventilator rush of 2020”
Megan Cadena
Best Staff Contribution, 2021
For Outreach Coordination
Miriam Castillo
Best Volunteer Staff Contribution, 2021
For Volunteer Recruitment
Audrey Rushing
H.M. Volunteer Staff Contribution, 2021
For Social Media
Ben Coombs
Greatest Contribution, 2021
For “the Ox”, VentMon, and VentOS
Christina Cole
Most Impactful Writing, 2021
For the Oxygen Concentrator Maintenance
Diego Aspinwall
Best Student Writing, 2021
For Geotagtext,
A Tutorial: A Free Geotagging Web Application
Composed of Free Tools
Christopher J Fang, Kaitlyn Wang, Stephanie A.
Ponce, Concepcion C Appio-Riley, Sana A.
Mohamed, and Samuel Robedee
Best University Team, 2021
For EcoPot
2020 Award Winners
These 2020 Public Invention awards were presented on Jan. 10th to:
Pierre Lonchampt
Special Recognition, 2020
For QA/RA Assistance to the Entire COVID-19 Pandemic Response Community
Erich Schulz
Special Recognition, 2020
For Community Leadership to the Entire COVID-19 Pandemic Response Community
Halimat Atinuke Farayola
Best New Public Inventor, 2020
For the Moonrat Project
Marc T. Jones
Most Active Board Member, 2020
For the FDA sharing proto-license and Libre Planet 2020
Megan Cadena
Best Addition to a Research Paper, 2020
For “Modelling the impact of rise time on ventilator performance”
Avinash Baskaran
Best Academic Publication, 2020
For “Controlling a variable geometry truss tetrobot with an isomorphic puppet controller”, ICMME 2020
Juan Enrique Villacres-Perez
Best Student Contribution, 2020
For COVID-19 Vent-List and “Modelling the impact of rise time on ventilator performance”
Jerry Chang
Best Educational Media Production, 2020
For Rapd E. coli Video Production
David Jeschke
Invention Coach, Honorable Mention, 2020
For the Math Tablet Project
Chris Ferguson
Best Invention Coach, 2020
For the Moonrat and Rapid E. coli Projects
Ben Coombs
Greatest Contribution, 2020
For the PIOC, VentMon, and VentOS Projects
Lauria Clarke
Best Public Inventor, 2020
For the VentMon Project
2019 Award Winners
Megan Cadena
Best Mathematical Contributions, 2019
For the Softrobotmath Project
David Jeschke
Best Invention Coach, 2019
Avinash Baskaran
Best Public Inventor, 2019
Stephanie Liu
Most Active Board member, 2019
Keeshan Patel
Best Public Inventor, 2018
2020 Award Winners
These 2020 Public Invention awards were presented on Jan. 10th to:
Pierre Lonchampt
Special Recognition, 2020
For QA/RA Assistance to the Entire COVID-19 Pandemic Response Community
Erich Schulz
Special Recognition, 2020
For Community Leadership to the Entire COVID-19 Pandemic Response Community
Halimat Atinuke Farayola
Best New Public Inventor, 2020
For the Moonrat Project
Marc T. Jones
Most Active Board Member, 2020
For the FDA sharing proto-license and Libre Planet 2020
Megan Cadena
Best Addition to a Research Paper, 2020
For “Modelling the impact of rise time on ventilator performance”
Avinash Baskaran
Best Academic Publication, 2020
For “Controlling a variable geometry truss tetrobot with an isomorphic puppet controller”, ICMME 2020
Juan Enrique Villacres-Perez
Best Student Contribution, 2020
For COVID-19 Vent-List and “Modelling the impact of rise time on ventilator performance”
Jerry Chang
Best Educational Media Production, 2020
For Rapd E. coli Video Production
David Jeschke
Invention Coach, Honorable Mention, 2020
For the Math Tablet Project
Chris Ferguson
Best Invention Coach, 2020
For the Moonrat and Rapid E. coli Projects
Ben Coombs
Greatest Contribution, 2020
For the PIOC, VentMon, and VentOS Projects
Lauria Clarke
Best Public Inventor, 2020
For the VentMon Project
2019 Award Winners
Megan Cadena
Best Mathematical Contributions, 2019
For the Softrobotmath Project
David Jeschke
Best Invention Coach, 2019
Avinash Baskaran
Best Public Inventor, 2019
Stephanie Liu
Most Active Board member, 2019
2018 Award Winners
Keeshan Patel
Best Public Inventor, 2018