Groundbreaking Spinal Cord Repair Treatment Wins Grand Prize in 2023 Create the Future Design Contest

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, November 29, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A research team at NeuroPair, Inc. won the Grand Prize in the 2023 Create the Future Design Contest for a revolutionary approach to spinal cord repair. For the first time in its 21-year history, the contest hosted a live pitch competition on November 10, in which finalists presented their inventions to a panel of judges. The votes were tallied, and the $25,000 Grand Prize winner was selected based on a pre-determined scoring system.

NeuroPair’s innovative treatment works by generating an injectable scaffold of aligned magnetic particles to create conditions for protecting, healing, and regrowing neurons that were damaged during spinal cord injury. The scaffold guides the direction of neuronal regrowth and may help enable recovery from SCI.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) affects 17,000 Americans and 700,000 people worldwide each year. Prognoses are often tragic and social costs exceed $2 million (US and EU) in the first 5 years of care. NeuroPair’s groundbreaking approach addresses a critical need in the medical field, offering a fast and minimally invasive solution to a long-standing problem.

Dr. Johannes Dapprich, NeuroPair CEO, expressed his gratitude during the award ceremony in New York. "Listening to all the talks — they were all absolutely amazing. The presentations and applications that they have in mind — I think anybody else could have won this just as well. I'm speechless, thank you very much. This is a really great competition."

Engineers, students, and entrepreneurs from 60 countries submitted new product ideas to the contest, which was established in 2002 to recognize and reward engineering innovations that benefit humanity, the environment, and the economy. This year’s contest was made possible by platinum sponsors COMSOL (www.comsol.com) and Mouser Electronics (www.mouser.com), along with supporting sponsors Analog Devices and Intel.

“COMSOL is grateful for the opportunity to support innovators and their important work through the Create the Future Design Contest,” said Bernt Nilsson, President of COMSOL, Inc. “A better tomorrow is possible only if we keep an open mind and give new ideas a chance to flourish. This is exactly what the Create the Future Design Contest is doing. Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to all participants for the many great and truly innovative ideas that will help bring a brighter future.”

"Mouser congratulates the 2023 Create the Future Contest winners, and we applaud all of the participants and their creative designs," said Kevin Hess, Mouser Electronics' Senior Vice President of Marketing. "We are proud of our longstanding support for the Create the Future Design Contest and the many innovations it has inspired through the years."

In addition to the grand prize, first-place winners were named in seven categories and received workstation computers courtesy of HP and NVIDIA.

Aerospace & Defense
Zulu Pods: The World's First Decentralized Lubrication System

Automotive & Transportation
Ganaio High-Output Regenerative Damper

Electronics
Safely Watch and Prioritize Maintenance With AI-deep Learning and Low Cost Passive RF Wireless Vibratory Strain Sensors

Manufacturing & Materials
TenseFlatables: 3D Printed Tensegrity-Assisted Inflatable Structures

Robotics & Automation
Patchflow-Robotics for In-Pipe Leak Repair

Medical
A Salivary Test for Brain Health

Sustainable Technology
Leakproof Valve

For more information about the Create the Future Design Contest, visit www.createthefuturecontest.com.

About COMSOL
COMSOL is a global provider of simulation software for product design and research to technical enterprises, research labs, and universities. Its COMSOL Multiphysics^® product is an integrated software environment for creating physics-based models and simulation applications. COMSOL has 18 offices worldwide and extends its reach with a network of distributors. Visit www.comsol.com.

About Mouser Electronics
Mouser Electronics, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is an authorized semiconductor and electronic component distributor focused on New Product Introductions from its leading manufacturer partners. Serving the global electronic design engineer and buyer community, the global distributor's website, mouser.com, is available in multiple languages and currencies and features more than 6.8 million products from over 1,200 manufacturer brands. Mouser offers 27 support locations worldwide to provide best-in-class customer service in local language, currency and time zone. The distributor ships to over 650,000 customers in 223 countries/territories from its 1 million-square-foot, state-of-the-art distribution facilities in the Dallas, Texas, metro area. For more information, visit https://www.mouser.com/.

Kaitlyn Sommer
SAE Media Group
kaitlyn.sommer@saemediagroup.com
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