SIU's 2013 Inventor Awardees Announced

The organizers and sponsors of the 2013 SIU Technology and Innovation Expo would like to congratulate our inventor award winners:

Inventor of the Year:

Professor David Lightfoot, Department of Plant, Soil, and Agricultural Systems, College of Agricultural Sciences, has been a prolific inventor since arriving at SIU. He has been the co-inventor on 7 issued patents since 1999 involving crop productivity and disease resistance primarily focused on soybeans. Three of these patents are licensed to a major US agriculture and plant biotechnology company and the inventions have earned substantial royalties to date. David is also an inventor or co-inventor on 8 pending patents. These inventions could help make a big difference for the productivity of farmers nationwide and beyond.

Innovator of the Year:

Dr. Peter Fadde, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education and Human Services, specializes in computer applications for training expert perceptual skills in sports such as tennis, softball, and baseball and other fields requiring perceptual decision making.based upon cognitive recognition. Peter's research has broken new ground in this field, and he has been applying training techniques with numerous baseball and softball organizations, both amateur and professional, as well as the United States Tennis Association. Peter has a patent pending for his invention for baseball and softball applications and his research has already resulted in a product now being sold nationwide by a sports training company, with other products anticipated.

Startup of the Year:

Dr. Paul Chugh, Department of Mining and Mineral Resources Engineering, College of Engineering has been an active researcher and inventor in the fields of mining safety and productivity for decades. Paul, along with a management team involving other current and former SIU staff, has recently formed a company to commercialize a number of his inventions.. Minerals Development Technologies, Inc (MDT) will initially focus on dust control technologies for continuous mining machines. The first dust control-related patent has been approved by the United State patent and Trademark Office with two others pending, and MDT is well on its way to achieving its first commercial sales to coal companies in the region.

Student Startup of the Year:

orderbolt, Inc. - orderbolt has evolved into the premiere mobile application for streamlining rent payments. Bryce Morrison, founder and CEO of orderbolt, was a senior in marketing at SIU when he won the 2011 Collegiate Camp CEO-Saluki Operation Bootstrap. Bryce won $7500 in seed capital and $2500 in resources. The original idea was using smartphones to place orders in bars and restaurants. orderbolt’s team has six Salukis, including two interns.