by Greg Lincoln
Hello everyone! It is time once again for the annual Arctic Innovation Competition (AIC) sponsored by the University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Business and Security Management.
The contest is now accepting innovative ideas for the chance to win cash prizes for your ideas, creation, innovations, and amazing projects. Ideas may be submitted in one of three age groups: 18 and over, 13-17, and 12 and younger. Ideas do not have to be Arctic-based to be considered.
We are excited to see who will be the next Arctic Innovator – it could be someone you know or even you!
When you enter, your ideas or your intellectual properties are protected when you enter the AIC: All people involved in screening ideas sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Ideas not selected for the final competition are kept confidential. You retain ownership of your idea, whether or not you win a prize.
This year, the prizes include four $2,000 “kicker” prizes awarded to main finalists with the best idea in these categories: 1) Arctic-related, 2) submitted by an Alaska college student, 3) related to sustainability and 4) related to climate adaptation. Ideas may fall under more than one category; however, competitors can only enter an idea into consideration for the sustainability prize or the climate adaptation prize — not for both categories.
The submission deadline is 11:59 p.m. Alaska time on Friday, March 11, 2022.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the competition will follow a schedule of virtual events, as it did in 2021. This schedule includes a series of online semi-final sessions, followed by the final presentations and award ceremony on Saturday, April 16. Competitors will not need to appear in person at the final event.
All ideas submitted to the AIC undergo an initial screening process and the top ideas are selected for the Semi-Finals and then the Final Competition. All initial screening is done anonymously; reviewers are given no information about the competitor’s identity. Individuals involved in screening ideas sign a non-disclosure agreement to help protect all intellectual property.
Last year’s winners included a small, blender-sized barley threshing and winnowing machine, a reinforced ice project to strengthen river ice using hemp fibers to help safely support tractor trailers weighing over 70,000 lbs., a fuel alert device that lets you know when your boat’s gas tank is full, a portable gantry crane that safely supports removal of generator ends from engines in tight surroundings, a home office timer that helps keep track of how long you’ve been working on your computer and provides reminders of when to take a break, and a COVID aerosol modeling tester that uses the smoke plume from a bread toaster.
Honorable mentions included tiny houses to address the student housing crises, a virtual reality Arctic Quest to be used with the Oculus Quest 2, air gap geodesic domes made from recycled plastics, mushroom-growing blocks made from waste cardboard, a virtual tour that delivers career and technical education training to village students in northwest Alaska, and a salmon strip uluaq that has two blades.
To find out more information and submit an idea, visit the Arctic Innovation Competition website. If you have questions about the competition, contact AIC at 907-474-6518 or [email protected].
