Awards

Our Sincere Thanks to the Unpaid Volunteers of Public Invention

Check Out Awards Given Out Over the Years!

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.

2025 Award Winners

Nagham Kheir

Best Public Inventor 2025

For the Krake Project

 

Ivan Urdiales

Best New Public Inventor 2025

For EcoPot Simulation

 

Vincent Steffens

Best Invention Coach 2025

For Global Distributed Tracking

 

“Lee” Forrest Erickson

Best Mentorship 2025

For Mentoring Moonrat and Krake

 

Nina Lahoti

Best User Interface Design 2025

For GDT Graphical User Interface

 

Saicharan Vishwanatha

Best Computer Simulation 2025

For ADaM Simulation

 

Charles (Hieu) Ngo

Best Security Contribution 2025

For GDT Security

 

Melanie Laporte

Best Technical Paper Contribution 2025

For Moonrat

 

Miriam Castillo

Best Paid Staff Contribution 2025

For Recruitment

 

Christina Cole

Best Unpaid Admin Contribution 2025

For Accounting

 

Gianluca Skirde

Best Public Inventor Honorable Mention 2025

For EcoPot Test Fixture CAD

 

Lawrence Kincheloe

Best Public Inventor Honorable Mention 2025

For NASA-MCOG and Biochar

 

Hardhik Pyla

Best Public Inventor Honorable Mention 2025

Emb. Eng. of Biochar Toilet

 

Courtney Ludick

Best Public Inventor Honorable Mention 2025

For Krake Enclosure Design

 

Juhandré Knoetze

Best Public Inventor Honorable Mention 2025

For Moving Krake to PIO

 

Jara Rodriguez

Best Public Inventor, Honorable Mention 2025

For GDT Backend Engineering

 

Alison Gilpatrick

Best Public Inventor, Honorable Mention 2025

For GDT Engineering

 

Deneille Guiseppi

Best Public Inventor Honorable Mention 2025

For GDT Programming

 

Nipul Avduth

Best Public Inventor Honorable Mention 2025

For Librecorder Programming

 

Victoria Jaqua

Best Invention Coach 2nd Place 2025

Product Owner of Global Distributed Tracking

 

Avinash Baskaran

Best Invention Coach Honorable Mention 2025

For Librecorder

 

Cledden Obeng-Poku

Best Invention Coach Honorable Mention 2025

For EcoPot Simulation

 

Francesca Williams

Technical Paper Contribution Honorable Mention 2025

For GDT paper at GHTC

 

Roy Phillips

Best Technical Paper Contribution Honorable Mention 2025

For Librecorder Lit. Review and Microscopy

 

Megan Cadena

Best Paid Staff Contribution Honorable Mention 2025

For Outreach Coordination

 

Mairin O’Grady

Best Paid Staff Contribution Honorable Mention 2025

For Technical Writing

2024 Award Winners

Judith Weng

Best Public Inventor, 2024

For Global Distributed Tracking

 

Nagham Kheir

Best New Public Inventor, 2024

For the Krake Annunciator

 

Forrest Lee Erickson

Best Invention Coach, 2024

For the Krake Annunciator

 

Nathaniel Bechard

Best Technical Paper, 2024

PolyVent Educational Platform, HardwareX

 

Nina Lahoti

Best GUI Design, 2024

For Global Distributed Tracking

 

Benedetto Skirde

Best Scientific Experiment, 2024

For Embedded Botanical Sensors

 

DMDM

Recognized External Ally

For Groundbreaking Open-source FDA Work, 2024

 

Mairin O'Grady

Best Paid Staff Contribution, 2024

For Technical Writing and LOSH

 

Victoria Jaqua

Best Invention Coach, 2nd Place, 2024

Product Owner of Global Distributed Tracking

 

Prajwal Shah

Best New Public Inventor, 2nd Place, 2024

For NanoCapTable

 

Alison Gilpatrick

Best New Public Inventor, 3rd Place, 2024

For Global Distributed Tracking

 

Cledden Obeng-Poku Kwanin

Best New Public Inventor, Honorable Mention, 2024

For the EcoPot Simulation

 

Asmi Shirsat

Best New Public Inventor, Honorable Mention, 2024

For the Ferrofluid Check Valve

 

Aditya Choski

Best New Public Inventor, Honorable Mention, 2024

For the EcoPot Design

 

Nora Moor

Best New Public Inventor, Honorable Mention, 2024

For Global Distributing Tracking

 

Coco Chen

Best New Public Inventor, Honorable Mention, 2024

For Global Distributing Tracking

 

Christina Cole

Best Volunteer Service, 2024

For Accounting Support

 

Lawrence Kincheloe

Best Public Inventor, 2nd Place, 2024

For NASA-MCOG

 

Katie Pryal

Best Public Inventor, 3rd Place, 2024

For Global Distributed Tracking

 

Joe Herschberger

Best Public Inventor, 4th Place, 2024

For Ferrofluid Check Valve and Pump

 

Ben Coombs

Best Public Inventor, Honorable Mention, 2024

For Global Distributed Tracking

 

Horacio Garcia

Best Public Inventor, Honorable Mention, 2024

For the Moonrat Portable Incubator

 

Silvia Casillas

Best Public Inventor, Honorable Mention, 2024

For the Moonrat Portable Incubator

 

Enrique Ruiz

Best Public Inventor, Honorable Mention, 2024

For the Moonrat Portable Incubator

 

Megan Cadena

Best Paid Staff Contribution, 2nd Place, 2024

For Outreach Coordination

 

Miriam Castillo

Best Paid Staff Contribution, 3rd Place, 2024

For Google Ads and Recruitment

2023 Award Winners

Forrest Lee Erickson

Best Invention Coach, 2023

For the Moonrat Portable Incubator

 

Harry Pierson

Best Public Inventor 2023

For GOSQAS Implementation

 

Lawrence Kincheloe

Best Public Inventor, 2nd Place 2023

For the NASA-MCOG

 

Melanie Laporte

Best New Public Inventor, 2023

For the Moonrat Portable Incubator

 

Geoff Mulligan

Best Public Inventor, 3rd Place 2023

For NASA MCOG Extensions

 

Miriam Castillo

Best Paid Staff Contribution, 2023

For Google Ads and Recruitment

 

Megan Cadena

Best Paid Staff Contribution, 2nd Place, 2023

For Outreach Coordination

 

Sabia Abidi

Most Active Board Member, 2nd Place, 2023

For PolyVent Educational Platform

 

Victoria Jaqua

Most Active Board Member 2022

For GOSQAS and Glia Tourniquet

 

Nathaniel Bechard

Best Technical Paper, 2023

PolyVent Educational Platform

 

Erich Schulz

Best Technical Paper, 2nd Place 2023

For Tracheal Tube Pitch, Roll and Yaw

 

Judith Weng

Best Technical Paper, 3nd Place 2023

For Tracheal Tube Pitch, Roll and Yaw

 

Christina Cole

Best Presentation, 2023

For Maker Faire Bay Area

 

Ben Coombs

Best Design Evolution, 2023

For VentMon T0.5

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

2021 Award Winners

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