11 Inventions By College Students That Are Super Impressive

Will your big idea be the next best thing?

1. We wouldn't have 3D glasses without one undergrad's invention.

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At 20 years old, Edwin Land was given a lab by Harvard to continue research for the polarizing filter. Because of his work, we now use the polarizing lens in sunglasses, 3D glasses, cameras, car headlights, and more.

2. One student group's invention is saving soldiers' lives.

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A group of Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering students have developed an injectable foam system which stops severe bleeding from a wound in areas where regular clotting agents (such as gauze pads) may not be effective. The foam was designed for soliders on the battlefield. It works by entering and expanding to fill the wound, targeting the source of blood loss more effectively.

3. Because of one group of undergrads, we can now 3D print our emojis in color.

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Chemical engineering undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin-Madison named Cédric Kovacs-Johnson and Charles Haider have created a device that allows desktop 3D printers to print in a full rainbow of colors for less than $100. Their design adds dye to the plastic while it melts, which means that it can be installed as part your existing printer.

4. Sometimes a track can be straight fire, but some students used their tunes to STOP fires.

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Two engineering students at George Mason University, Viet Tran and Seth Robertson, invented a fire extinguisher that uses low-frequency sound waves. They came up with the idea as part of a final college project, using $600 of their own money. By using sound waves instead of harmful toxins, their technology could offer a much safer alternative to firefighting.

5. Yeah, you may have recycled in college, but one college student took that effort from the dorm to the ocean.

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Boyan Slat invented a solution to get rid of the billions (yes, billions) of tons of plastic and garbage polluting the ocean called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. His design uses floating blooms to suck up all the plastic and direct it to existing plastic processing plants which recycle the material. Boyan initially wrote a paper on this design at 19 years old while at school, claiming he could rid the ocean of this pollution in five years.

6. We can all thank one student for making getting blood tested just a little less painful.

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While a college sophomore at Stanford, Elizabeth Holmes reinvented a way to perform 30 lab tests using only a pinprick and a drop of blood. Her method is much faster and less expensive than traditional blood testing, meaning that it has the power to vastly improve the diagnosis process.

7. One undergrad heard all the cries of our smartphones, and took charge (literally).

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18-year-old Eesha Khare funded her undergraduate education at Harvard University by inventing a tiny supercapacitator device which can store a large amount of energy and therefore recharge cell phone batteries in 30 seconds.

8. Being sick sucks, but one student's invention lets you suck to stop being sick.

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Young concerned father and Cornell University freshman Anthony Halmon was juggling being a father and a student at the same time. In an attempt to consolidate two products into one useful apparatus, Halmon created a pacifier that also serves as a thermometer, so you can detect any irregularities in body temperature at any time.

9. Bikes are awesome but can be heavy sometimes, so nine college students did something about it.

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A group of nine mechanical engineering students at Yale designed an eight-pound bicycle with a spokeless rear wheel.

10. When you're getting surgery, you never want anything to go wrong, and neither do these undergrads.

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Johns Hopkins undergraduates have invented a suture tool which works to prevent the needle from accidentally puncturing the internal organs when closing incisions after abdominal surgery.

11. We may not have hoverboards JUST yet, but this new motorized skateboard is pretty close.

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Nuclear engineering student Joe Carabetta from Purdue University has created a device which can be attached and removed to skateboards in order to motorize them. With Carabetta’s device, skateboarders don't have to purchase expensive skateboards with built-in motors.

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