MADMEC winners develop spray-on coating to protect power lines from ice

A spray-on finishing to maintain high-voltage line standing with an ice tornado might not be the noticeable solution for winter months failures– however it’s precisely the sort of technology that occurs when MIT pupils deal with a sustainability obstacle.

” The large danger to the high-voltage line network is winter months topping that triggers big quantities of downed lines each year,” states Trevor Bormann, a college student in MIT’s Division of Products Scientific Research and Design (DMSE) and participant of MITten, the winning group in the 2025 MADMEC technology competition. Taking care of those failures is widely carbon-intensive, calling for diesel-powered tools, substitute products, and included power usage. And as families change to electrical heatpump, the risks of an extended failure increase.

To resolve the obstacle, the group established a specialized polymer finishing that fends off water and can be splashed onto light weight aluminum high-voltage line. The finishing has nanofillers– bits numerous times smaller sized than a human hair– that provide the surface area an appearance that makes water grain and leak off.

The impact is called “superhydrophobicity,” states Shaan Jagani, a college student in the Division of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “And what that actually implies is water does not remain on the surface area, and as a result water will certainly not have the possibility to nucleate down right into ice.”

MITten– noticable “mitten”– won the $10,000 very first reward in the competition, organized by DMSE on Nov. 10 at MIT, where target market discussions and poster sessions covered months of style and trial and error. Because 2007, MADMEC (the Making and Creating Products Design Competition), moneyed by Dow and Saint-Gobain, has actually provided pupils an opportunity to deal with real-world sustainability obstacles, with each group getting $1,000 to construct and check their tasks. Juries examined the groups’ job from perception to model.

MADMEC champions have actually taken place to prosper in significant technology competitors such as MassChallenge, and at the very least 6 start-ups– consisting of individual air conditioning wristband manufacturer Embr and vehicle-motion-control business ClearMotion– map their origins to the competition.

Cold ideas

The concept for the MITten task can be found in component from Bormann’s experience maturing in South Dakota, where winter months failures prevailed. His home was warmed by gas, however if grid-reliant heatpump had actually heated it in negative-zero winter season, a days-long failure would certainly have been “actually harsh.”

” I like the component of sustainability that is concentrated on establishing all these brand-new innovations for electrical energy generation and use, however likewise the circulation side of it should not be ignored, either,” Bormann states. “It is very important for all those to be expanding synergistically, and to be focusing on all facets of it.”

And there’s a possibility to make circulation framework a lot more sturdy: An approximated 50,000 miles of brand-new high-voltage line are prepared over the following years in the north USA, where topping is a severe danger.

To check their finishing, the group developed a topping chamber to mimic rainfall and cold problems, contrasting covered versus uncoated light weight aluminum examples at– 10 levels Celsius (14 levels Fahrenheit). They likewise dipped examples in fluid nitrogen to assess efficiency in severe cool and substitute real-world stress and anxieties such as lines guiding in hurricanes.

” We primarily covered light weight aluminum substratums and after that curved them to show that the finishing itself can fit long pressures,” Jagani states.

The group ran simulations to approximate that a common failure influencing 20 percent of an area can set you back regarding $7 million to fix. “Yet if you totally layer, state, 1,000 kilometers of line, you in fact can conserve $1 million in simply worldly prices,” states DMSE college student Matthew Michalek. The group wishes to additional improve the finishing with advanced products and check them in a specialist topping chamber.

Brownish-yellow Velez, a college student in the Division of Mechanical Design, emphasized the specifications of the competition– functioning within a $1,000 spending plan.

” I feel we did fairly great with fairly a great deal of authenticity, however I assume going on, there is a great deal of room that we can have a lot more play in,” she states. “We have actually absolutely not strike the ceiling yet, and I assume there’s a great deal of area to maintain expanding.”

Compostable electrodes, microwavable porcelains

The second-place, $6,000 reward mosted likely to Electrodiligent, which is developing an eco-friendly, compostable choice to electrodes made use of for heart surveillance. Their model makes use of a cellulose paper support and a conductive gel made from jelly, glycerin, and salt chloride to lug the electrical signal.

Contrasting electrocardiogram (ECG) results, the group located their electrodes carried out in a similar way to the 3M Red Dot criterion. “We’re really positive regarding this outcome,” states Ethan Frey, a DMSE college student.

The creation intends to reduce right into the 3.6 lots of clinical waste generated daily, however courts kept in mind that glue electrodes are generally blazed for health and wellness factors, making the designated application a challenging fit.

” Yet there’s an entire host of various other instructions the group can enter,” states Mike Tarkanian, elderly speaker in DMSE and planner of MADMEC.

The $4,000 3rd reward mosted likely to Cerawave, a group composed of mainly undergrads and a participant the group amusingly called a “token college student,” functioning to make porcelains in a normal cooking area microwave. Conventional ceramic production needs high-temperature kilns, a significant resource of power usage and carbon discharges. Cerawave included silicon carbide to their ceramic mix to assist it soak up microwave power and fuse right into a sturdy end product.

” We tossed it on the ground a couple of times, and it really did not damage,” states Merrill Chiang, a junior in DMSE, attracting laughs from the target market. The group currently prepares to improve their dish and general ceramic-making procedure to make sure that enthusiasts– and also individuals in atmospheres like the International Spaceport Station– can develop ceramic components “without acquiring actually pricey heaters.”

The power of pupil technology

Although it really did not make a reward, the competition’s most advanced task was ReForm Layouts, which intends to make multiple-use kids’s furnishings– pricey and promptly grown out of– from modular blocks constructed from mycelium, the root-like, growth-driving component of a mushroom. The group revealed they can efficiently create mycelium blocks, however sluggish development and level of sensitivity to dampness and temperature level implied they really did not yet have complete furnishings items to reveal courts.

The task still satisfied DMSE elderly David Miller, that calls the blocks “actually appealing,” with prospective applications past furnishings in production, building and construction, and customer items.

” They adjust to the means we take in items, where a great deal of us utilize items for one, 2, 3 years prior to we toss them out,” Miller states. “Their capability to be totally naturally degradable and built right into any type of form fills up the requirement for sure type of additive production that needs particular forms, while likewise being exceptionally lasting.”

While the competition has actually generated effective start-ups, Tarkanian states MADMEC’s initial objective– offering pupils an opportunity to obtain their hands unclean and seek their very own concepts– is flourishing 18 years on, particularly at once when research study budget plans are being reduced and scientific research is under analysis.

” It provides pupils a possibility to make points that are genuine and impactful to culture,” he states. “So when you can construct a model and state, ‘This is mosting likely to conserve X numerous bucks or X million extra pounds of waste,’ that worth is noticeable to everybody.”

Guest Jinsung Kim, a postdoc in mechanical design, resembled Tarkanian’s remarks, highlighting the room reserve for cutting-edge reasoning.

” MADMEC develops the unusual setting where pupils can experiment strongly, verify concepts promptly, and convert core clinical concepts right into services with genuine social influence. To relocate culture onward, we need to maintain pressing the limits of modern technology and basic scientific research,” he states.