Weather Bots Warren Jackson designed a GPS-equipped robot when he was a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. The robot was created to bring weather balloons back down to Earth, allowing them to land in a predetermined location. The National Weather Service has collected most of its information using weather balloons that carry a device to measure items such as pressure, wind, and humidity.
When the balloon reaches about 100,000 feet and pressure causes it to pop, the device falls and lands a substantial distance from its launch point. The weather service and researchers sometimes look for the $200 device, but of the 80,000 sent up annually, they write off many as lost.
Jackson's idea was so inventive that Penn's Weiss Tech House-a university organization that encourages students to innovate and bring their ideas to market-awarded Jackson and some fellow graduate engineering students first prize in its third annual PennVention Contest.
Jackson won $5,000 and access to expert advice on prototyping, legal matters, and branding. GPS and GIS can be used in all sorts of devices, in many different industries, for multiple purposes. You want to compete, and win first prize, in the PennVention next year. Create a product, using a GPS or GIS, that is not currently in the market today that you will present at the next PennVention.