The 2015 Invention Awards

Every year, the Popular Science Invention Awards celebrates 10 scrappy inventions designed to solve real problems. To find the winners of the ninth annual awards, we reviewed dozens of reader submissions, combed through hundreds of news stories, and reached out to schools and hackerspaces across the country. The 10 finalists tackle a range of issues, from taking the needles out of vaccination to preventing the destruction of coral reefs–and, of course, bringing the flying car from science fiction into reality.

This year, maker extraordinaire Bre Pettis, co-founder of the revolutionary 3D-printer company MakerBot, helped us choose the Invention Award winners, and shared his advice for other would-be inventors. At his skunkworks Bold Machines, Pettis offers guidance and prototyping help for those who want to travel the thorny path from concept to marketable invention. Similarly, without the support of a corporate R&D lab, the amazing designers and tinkerers behind these 10 creations have had to raise their own money, build their own prototypes, and often form their own companies. Which makes their achievements all the more remarkable.

The Winners

• A Plane That Folds Into A Car

• Needle-Free Vaccination

• A Braille Printer Born From LEGO

• Personal Pollution Monitor

• Hands-On Virtual Reality

• A Self-Balancing Vehicle

• An Artificial Reef For Any Seafloor

• Medical Lab In A Music Box

• A Printer For Circuit Boards

• A Frying Pan That Teaches You To Cook

Behind The Scenes With Bre Pettis

This article was originally published in the May 2015 issue of Popular Science.

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Flying Car

Needle-Free Vaccines

A Braille Printer Born From LEGO

Personal Pollution Monitor

Hands-On Virtual Reality

A Self-Balancing Two-Wheeled Car

Artificial Reefs For Any Seafloor

Medical Lab In A Music Box

A Printer For Circuit Boards

A Frying Pan That Teaches You How To Cook