Students Receive Awards for ‘Extreme Redesigns’

Prior to Monday’s 4 p.m. keynote address, high-school and college students from around the world stepped on stage to receive their top prizes in the Second Annual Extreme Redesign contest. The contest is held by The Dimension 3D Printing Group, a division of Statasys Inc., and sponsored by Product Design & Development magazine and the National Association of Professional Engineers.

Jon Cobb, vice president of 3D printing for The Dimension 3D Group presented winners in both high school and college categories with both $2,500 and $1,000 scholarships. The awards ceremony took place immediately before Chinese Business Services President Colin Wu took the stage for his keynote address.

Now in its second year, Extreme Redesign is a contest developed to help promote engineering education among high school and college students. “The number of students coming out of technical schools and colleges with engineering degrees has dipped over the last couple of decades,” Cobb says. “It’s important that we continue to get more students excited about math and science to ensure we have a talented pool of engineers for tomorrow’s needs.”

This year, more than 500 hundred students from the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Singapore entered the contest. “We increased submission by 10 times this year,” Cobb says. “It was extremely close voting.”

The contest asks entrants to submit “redesigns” of existing products. Among the winners this year are a detachable cord reel, a wall mount for an electric toothbrush, extendable outlets, and a sandwich holder. Although the contest isn’t necessarily looking for designs ready to be put on the market, Cobb says this year’s contestants came up with designs that aren’t that far off from that target.

“Some of these kids should be looking to get patents,” he says. “There were some [designs] that are really marketable.”During the contest, students submitted a .stl file of their “extreme redesign” to Dimension through an online submission form. The completed submission form included a 200-word description of the value and benefit of the part they wanted to enter. Dimension then sent entrants a 3D print of their design that they could hold in their hands and evaluate. From there, entrants had the opportunity to make any necessary design improvements and develop a second iteration for final submission.

This year’s competition featured a number of creative designs that were judged by professional engineers in various industries. But, Cobb says, regardless of who wins, the goal of the competition is establish the necessary skills for young engineers to succeed in the future.

“The Extreme Redesign contest gets to the core of what drew most of us to the field of design engineering in the first place: creation and innovation,” Cobb says. “Peaking the interest of more students that otherwise might not have considered pursuing a career in this field can only strengthen the overall level of talent.”

The winner of this year’s high school category is Keith Liddy, a senior at Medina County Career Center in Brunswick, OH. Liddy will accept a $2,500 scholarship for designing a detachable cord reel. Meanwhile, Bruce Cherry of Lake Washington Technical College in Mountlake Terrace, WA, and Gabi Ritter from the University of Art and Design in Halle/Saale, Germany were named co-winners of the college division and both receive the top scholarship. Cherry’s design is a wall mount for an electric toothbrush. Ritter, who is the first woman to win the Extreme Redesign contest, won for an innovative calendar design.

In addition to the top prize winners, two students in the high school category and one in the college category were awarded with $1,000 scholarships. The two finalists in the high school category are Joe Novello, a senior at Preble High School in Green Bay, WI, and Rick Barr, a junior at Kettering Fairmont High School in Kettering, OH. Novello is the designer of extendable electrical outlets. Barr designed a special sandwich holder.

The college finalist also hails from across the ocean, marking the first time students from outside the United States have won placed in the contest. Balaza Galambos of the Technical University of Budapest in Hungary designed a holographic projection device.

In addition to receiving their awards at Monday’s ceremony, the six students and their parents were at the Dimension booth (17050) on Tuesday, March 21. They met with attendees and showcased their designs throughout the day.