Westlake Techmate Wins Runner-Up Honors in Inventors Competition

TechDirections magazine has just released the best entries of the annual Inventors competition.  This year’s challenge called for students to design an alternative energy system that could help meet the needs of a large city – specifically, Chicago, Illinois, located on the shore of one of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan.

Winning the silver medal and runner-up honors in the national contest was senior CAL CRAVEN.  Craven designed a skyscraper that utilizes piezo electric absorbers embedded into the building to harness the seemingly constant wind off Lake Michigan in order to create electricity.

The competition was judged by inventor and electrical engineer Harry Roman.  In his judges comments, Roman stated that not only was his design elegant and sophisticated, but it would also give architects new options to employ with this system.

Winning the bronze medal and 3rd place overall was senior JAKE JOHANNI.  Johanni designed a rooftop algae farm consisting of tanks capable of producing biodiesel and other biofuels that could power anything from a generator to a car to a jet engine.

The article, illustrations, and a full description of all the top inventions can be seen on the TechDirections magazine online version – click on link below (see page 23 and 24 for the WHS entries)…

www.omagdigital.com/publication/?m=6340&l=1

TechDirections Magazine

Annual Inventors Competition 2015

Silver Medal and Runner-up: CAL CRAVEN (Sr.) – Westlake High School