Finalists for the 2021 R&D 100 Awards have been announced by R&D World magazine. This renowned worldwide competition, now in its 59th year, received entries from 17 different countries/regions. This year, the judging panel included nearly 50 well-respected industry professionals across the globe.
“We weren’t sure what to expect with the impact that COVID-19 has had on research labs across the world,” said Paul J. Heney, Vice President, Editorial Director for R&D World. “But this year exceeded all of our expectations, with more submissions coming in than in the previous few years. What’s more, the quality of the entries was extremely high.”
The Finalists are listed below by category, and then alphabetically by submission name, and include primary submitting organizations and then co-developing organizations. (Please note: There were no Finalists within the “Other” category this year, so only the remaining five categories are listed below.)
Depending on a pending decision as to whether to hold an in-person or virtual awards ceremony, the 2021 R&D 100 Winners, as well as the Special Recognition category medalists, will be announced in late September or in mid-November. Details on that decision will be released soon.
Finalist logos are available here (PDF) and here (.png file). And to order extra engraved plaques, click here for the PDF form.
A sincere congratulations from our whole staff to all of the Finalists!
Analytical/Test category
3D Printing Biomimetic Materials and Structures for Tissue Integration (BioMS-Ti)
Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI)
Ingrowth Biotech Co., Ltd.
Aquadex SmartFlow®
Nuwellis Inc.
Ballistic Gas Chromatograph (BGC)
MRIGlobal
VICI Valco Instruments
Bigfoot Spectral Cell Sorter
Thermo Fisher Scientific
Propel Labs
Fast PFAS Sensor
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Forager
Brightseed
Gibco™ CTS™ Rotea Counterflow Centrifugation System
Thermo Fisher Scientific
Scinogy
GUIDE (Guided Ultrasound Intervention Device)
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Massachusetts General Hospital
Model 261 Deep Ultraviolet Diode Laser Module
UVC Photonics
MSA-650 IRIS Micro System Analyzer
Polytec GmbH
Robert Bosch GmbH — Central Research and Advance Engineering Division – Microsystems Technology, Stuttgart University — Institute of Applied Optics, Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems, IMMS Institut für Mikroelektronik- und Mechatronik-Systeme gemeinnützige GmbH
NexION® 5000 Multi-Quadrupole ICP Mass Spectrometer
PerkinElmer, Inc.
Nortis ParVivo Platform
Nortis, Inc.
OH0TA OVMed® Medical Image Sensor
OmniVision Technologies Inc.
Peak Nano Optics
Peak Nano Optics
PhotoCube™
ThalesNano Inc.
ComInnex Inc.
Potent and Effective Synthetic SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Nanobodies
Sandia National Laboratories
RAPTR N95
Sandia National Laboratories
SIRIUS® XHS
Dewesoft d.o.o.
The Solvere™ CSD
Activated Research Company, LLC
TruTag’s Edible Barcodes
TruTag Technologies, Inc.
IT/Electrical category
Cloud-based Smart Point Cloud Processing (CSPCP)
National Center for High-performance Computing (NCHC) of National Applied Research Laboratories (NARLabs)
National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Tunghai University
ePix X-ray detectors
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Field-Programmable Imaging Array
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Free-space quantum network link architecture
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
GridDamper
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Electric Power Research Institute
Infinitum Electric Air-Core Motor
Infinitum Electric
kNOw Touch
Hong Kong Productivity Council
Lab-on-a-Fish
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Lightweight Optical Telecommunication from Under Sea (LOTUS)
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Low Voltage Air Circuit Breakers World Super AE V Series C-class
Mitsubishi Electric Corp.
Monolithic Fiber Array Launcher
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Multiplicity Counter for Thermal and Fast Neutrons (MC-TF)
Radiation Monitoring Devices (RMD) Inc.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Defense Threat Reduction Agency
Nalu micro-implantable pulse generator (mIPG)
Nalu Medical, Inc.
Optical Transconductance Varistor
Opcondys, Inc.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Quantum Scientific Computing Open User Testbed (QSCOUT)
Sandia National Laboratories
Small Spacecraft Electric Propulsion (SSEP) System
NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC)
Small World AI
LocationMind Inc.
The University of Tokyo
SmartTensors AI Platform
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Spectrally Efficient Digital Logic
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Wireless Valve Position Indicator Sensor System
Idaho National Laboratory
Mechanical/Materials category
A high-performance chromium-antimony absorber material for next-generation lithography photomasks
The Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
AeroMINE
Sandia National Laboratories
Westergaard Solutions, Inc., Texas Tech University
AGILITYTM 1500 Performance LDPE
Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics, a business unit of Dow
AgriTraxx® AirCore™ Gauge Tires
Superior Tire & Rubber Corp.
AMSil™ and AMSil Silbione™
Elkem Silicones
aquatimo®
Taiwan Textile Research Institute
Autonomous Self-Healing Sealant
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
BETAMATE™ 2090 crash resistant structural adhesive for battery housings enabling EV mass production and offering safe battery modules
DuPont
BIG NET
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
ReactWell, LLC, Holocene Climate Corp.
Borchi® OXY-Coat 1510
Milliken & Company
Carbon CACHE (Ceramic Anode Cell with High Efficiency)
Idaho National Laboratory
Catalyzed Diesel Exhaust Fluid (CAT-DEF™)
Southwest Research Institute
Celluwarm
Nano and Advanced Materials Institute
Shengquan Hong Kong Company Ltd.
Coffee Bean Grinding Blade with Hard Amorphous Metal Coating
Nano and Advanced Materials Institute
Severin Asia Ltd.
Create to Zero _ Future Eco Textiles with Bio-Dyes and Bio-Auxiliaries (BioDA)
Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI)
Eclat Textile Co., Ltd.; Jintex Corp. Ltd.
Delrin® RA511CPE
E.I. DuPont de Nemours (Mobility & Materials)
DOWSIL™ 8016 Waterborne Resin
Dow
DOWSIL™ TC-4060 Thermal Gel
Dow Performance Silicones
E-NANO FTHR-001 Resin
Nano and Advanced Materials Institute
Chung Yin New Materials (H.K.) Company Ltd.
Earth’s-field Resonance Detection and Evaluation (ERDE) Devices
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Easy-Dismantled PV Modules with Thermoplastic Elastomer and Thermoset EVA Material, EDPV-2TE
Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI)
ELCRES™ HTV150 Dielectric Film
SABIC
Shin-Etsu Polymer Co.
GRSR™
Nano and Advanced Materials Institute
Hongrita Plastics Ltd.
Guardiant
Corning Incorporated
High-Temperature Printable (HTP) Aluminum Alloys
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
HSG Thermal Management Pad
Nano and Advanced Materials Institute
HFC Industry Ltd.
Hybrid Power Fuel Cell System with High Payload and Duration for UAV (HPFC-HPD)
Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI)
INFINAIR™ Polyolefin Elastomers
Dow Specialty Plastics
GiGwi HK Trading Co., Ltd.
Integrated Chutes and Sensors: Making Biorefineries Commercially Viable
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Jenike & Johanson
IS-P4 Separator-free Lithium-ion Battery
Nano and Advanced Materials Institute
Amperex Technology Limited
Layered-Rocksalt Intergrowth Electrode Materials for Next-Generation Li-ion Batteries
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Liquid Nails® Fuze*It® Max™
PPG
Microhydraulic Motors
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Multi-functional Sorbent Technology (MUST)
Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory
Somerset International Inc., The Dow Chemical Company
Portable EnGineered Analytic Sensor with aUtomated Sampling (PEGASUS)
Los Alamos National Laboratory
PPG BFP-SE Battery Fire Protection
PPG
PPG ENVIROCRON™ Extreme Protection Thermally Conductive Dielectric Powder Coatings
PPG
PPG HI-TEMP™ 1027 HD
PPG
RE-Metal
Idaho National Laboratory
RHOBARR™ 214 Emulsion
The Dow Chemical Co.
SABIC’s High-Purity SD1100P Specialty Dianhydride
SABIC
Smart Motoring-Gear Module
Electric Motor Technology Research Center, National Cheng Kung University
Metal Industries Research & Development Centre
Smart-bomb for Neutralizing Underground TCE Pollution (S-NUT)
Industry Technology Research Institution(ITRI)
Solar Forward Osmosis (FO) Desalination System
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Porifera Inc. and California Resource Corp.
Solvite Garment Rejuvenator
Milliken & Company
Procter & Gamble
The Continuous Type Heat Treatment System Equipment for Micro Parts (CTHT)
Metal Industries Research & Development Centre (MIRDC)
Timken Split Tapered Roller Bearing for Mainshaft
The Timken Co.
Tough SmCo
Ames Laboratory
Electron Energy Corp.
Ubiquitous Water Wand (UWAW)
Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI)
Chyi Ding Technologies Co., Ltd.
UCC: Ultraconductive Copper-CNT Composite
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Ultrawhite Radiative Cooling Paint
Purdue University
Process/Prototyping category
A Novel Circulating Bed Biofilm Reactor (CBBR) for Carbon Capture from Sewage
Hong Kong Productivity Council
Bio-nano cellulose composite technology through aqueous-phase functionalization
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
FiberLean Technologies Ltd.
Electric Autonomous Box Truck
Gatik
Electrically-Assisted Free Forming (EAFF) Technology – Digital Dieless Direct Manufacturing Technology for Mass Customization of Sheet Metals
Hong Kong Productivity Council
Tung Hing Automation Investment Ltd.
HP 3D High Reusability PP
HP Inc.
HP Jet Fusion 5200 Series: 3D Automatic Unpacking Station
HP Inc.
In-Sight 3D-L4000
Cognex Corp.
RFID Yarn®: Overcomer for 5 Major Durability Test
Taiwan Textile Research Institute
Stamping-Type Plating Machine
Toyota Motor Corp.
Toyota Central R&D Labs. Inc., Mikado Technos Co., Ltd.
UHS rapid sintering
University of Maryland College Park
HighT-Tech LLC
Upcycling of Electronic Waste into Gold Nanoparticles Using Ultrasound
Sandia National Laboratories
Win-3D Washout-Coating
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, The ExOne Co.
Software/Services category
ADS Codex: Adaptive DNA Storage Codec
Los Alamos National Laboratory
AI-Rad Companion Organs RT
Siemens Healthineers AG
AiWT-DMP
Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI)
HCT Logistics, iAmech Technology Inc.
Bison
Idaho National Laboratory
BLK247 from Leica Geosystems, part of Hexagon
Leica Geosystems, part of Hexagon
Certara’s COVID-19 Vaccine Model
Certara
CICE Consortium
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Danish Meteorological Institute, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences, National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Naval Postgraduate School, U. S. Naval Research Laboratory Stennis Space Center, University of Reading, University of Washington
Commercial Routing Assistance Tool
Idaho National Laboratory
All Hazards Consortium
dGen™
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Eco-Mobility with Connected Powertrains
Southwest Research Institute
Toyota Motor North America, University of Michigan
Floodlight™ Non-Targeted Analysis System
Southwest Research Institute
Flux: Next-Generation Workload Management Software Framework
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Global Synthetic Weather Radar
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
U.S. Air Force
IdPrism
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
INER Distribution Network Management System (iDNMS)
Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, Atomic Energy Council, Executive Yuan (INER)
Misinformation join-fighting mechanism enabled by AI forensics technology
Institute for Information Industry
Taiwan FactCheck Center
ML-GA
Argonne National Laboratory
Mochi: Customizable Data Navigation Tool
Argonne National Laboratory
Carnegie Mellon University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, The HDF Group
MSC MillMax®
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
MSC Industrial Supply Inc., Manufacturing Laboratories Inc.
MURMUR (Motion Under Rubble Measured Using Radar)
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM)
The Rapid Reaction Technology Office (OSD RRTO)
Plug-N-Play Appliance for Resilient Response of Operational Technologies (PARROT)
Idaho National Laboratory
Precision Deicer
Clinch River Computing LLC
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
QED: Quantum Ensured Defense of the Smart Electric Grid
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory and EPB
Resilience Smart Maintenance System for Semiconductor Automation Equipment (RSMS)
Institute for Information Industry
Secure-Firmware Over-the-Air (S-FOTA)
Sandia National Laboratories
Shadow Figment
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Shared Information Platform for Disaster Management
Hitachi, Ltd.
National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience
Slycat
Sandia National Laboratories
Smart Multifunctional Periodontal Pathology Quick Screening System (SMPPQSS)
Metal Industries Research & Development Centre (MIRDC)
SNAPSHOT: Distributed Accelerated All-Pairs Shortest Path
Oak Ridge National Labaoratory
Georgia Institute of Technology
Software-defined Augmented Robot Joint (SARJ)
Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI)
SZ: A Lossy Compression Framework for Scientific Data
Argonne National Laboratory
talos.DPI: Transparent Application-Layer/OS Deeper Packet Inspector
Sandia National Laboratories
Terra Spotlight: A New Paradigm in Rapid Change Detection Using Satellite Images
Los Alamos National Laboratory
The Neutron and Gamma Ray Source Localization and Mapping Platform 2.0
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
ThermalTracker-3D
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Traffic Flow Impact (TFI) Tool
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Federal Aviation Administration
UVL Robotics: drone solution for warehouse inventory counts
UVL Robotics Inc.
WEC-Sim
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Sandia National Laboratories
It seems to me there is a strong correlation, at least among US finalists, between the buckets of money the various labs get from the federal govt. and how many of their projects are finalists, e.g. Sandia Labs, MIT Lincoln Labs, Los Alamos Labs, Oak Ridge, etc. It reminds me of US News’s College rankings where there is very strong correlation between the size of the schools endowment and its position on their (and most other) ranking list. We all know the rich get richer . . . so you might spend a little time thinking about how to offset this (very strong) tendancy. It seems to me some sort of “normalization” is in order. Or perhaps, you should group contenders by the size of their money buckets so the really rich only compete against the really rich and so on. It should not be about how much money comes your way but the effectiveness with which you use it.
Richard SImone
Right on!
Congratulations Finalists! Proud of INL and all others.