INDUCTEES: 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007

Edward T. Gemin, 17, Xenia, Ohio

Edward’s Heat Energy Recovery System conserves home energy by recycling the heat in water from showers, baths, clothes washers, and dishwashers. This is done by pumping the heat from the used hot water to the fresh water reservoir. This invention incorporates a microprocessor to monitor water temperatures and levels within the system.

As microprocessor chips continue to increase in complexity, their power consumption increases as well. As a result, today’s chips generate greater quantities of heat as a by-product that can cause serious damage to the microprocessor. Ryan’s invention is a cooling system that provides a cost-efficient method to remove excess heat thereby allowing an inexpensive microprocessor to be “overclocked” to operate at speeds equivalent to the more expensive microprocessors.

The main contributor to acid rain is the sulfur dioxide produced by various industrial processes at refineries, pulp and paper mills, and metal smelters. Currently, there are four main types of sensor technology which are used to measure sulfur dioxide levels, but Ann’s invention is small, cost-efficient, sensitive, and can be used to measure sulfur dioxide emissions of individual smokestacks, resulting in the ability to effectively monitor pollution process by process.

Joseph E. & William H. Pechter, 18, Vero Beach, FL

Joseph and William are twin brothers whose invention helps blind and visually impaired people. Their program automatically reads any text on the computer or in the scanner with the touch of a single button. It recognizes more than 10,000 full words, and reads text with speech inflection based on punctuation marks.

Spencer has developed a series of hospital-related products that make a child’s stay more enjoyable. Among his products are ride toys that have I.V. poles attached thus allowing the young patients undergoing I.V. treatments to still ride around the hospital in toy cars in trucks. Spencer has been featured on the Montel Williams Show, and his ride toys are now being used in a Pittsburgh area hospital.

There is a real need in many industries for sensors that do not come in contact with the contents of vessels, tanks, and other containers. Such sensors are important because they avoid contamination of very clean or pure substances. Naveen’s invention uses two ultrasonic transducers mounted on opposite sides on the outside of the container. The two sound waves produced combine to produce an interference pattern that are then used to monitor the contents of the container.