ME student wins Student Innovator of the Year

Daily Herald

An enterprising mechanical engineering student won both first and third place in the college's first annual Student Innovator of the Year competition.

Clark Davis, senior, won the $3,000 first-place prize for Gypsy, easy-to-assemble furniture he invented for the "mobile population." The sturdy yet lightweight wooden furniture snaps together in just minutes without any tools or screws. Davis designed and prototyped Gypsy all in the month before the competition.

The idea came to him during a recent end-of-the-semester move from one apartment to another. He was able to fit everything he owned into his car--except his bookshelf and desk. He figured many college students have the same problem and decided to invent something that was easy to put together and disassemble.

Davis also took home the $1,000 third-place prize for UPPERcase, an overhead modular storage system he spent the last two years designing and testing.

The second place team, 2 ft. Prosthetics, also took home one of two Peery Social Entrepreneurship fellowships.

The competition was judged by members of the college's Advancement Council for Engineering and Technology (ACET), local professionals and representatives of the Peery Foundation. Over two days, the judges narrowed the field from 30 entries to 10 finalists. The complete list of winners is as follows: