Flying Cars Last Year, Flying Folks This Year

Last year Carl Deitrich was awarded the prize for his work on a 'practical' flying car. Yesterday, Nate Ball was awarded this year's $30,000 Lemelson-MIT student prize for his latest invention the ATLAS Powered Rope Ascende. .It allows a user to scale a rope as fast as 10 feet per second. The prize is described as "awarded annually to an MIT senior or graduate student who has created or improved a product or process, applied a technology in a new way, redesigned a system, or demonstrated remarkable inventiveness in other ways." The rope ascender will allow the user to drastically cut the time it takes to scale a building, even with 80 or 100 pounds of gear on their person. Mechanical ascension of a building will also reduce the fatigue of the user who might otherwise be running up stairs or climbing a ladder. The potential uses for emergency response personnel like firefighters and EMTs as well as soldiers are top on the list of uses –though it's also just wicked cool in a comic book fantasy way. Who wouldn't want the opportunity to scale the Hancock Tower in about a minute?

The device is rather small (pictured with the winner at right) and weighs only 20 pounds. The use of a compact lithium ion battery powers the machine. At first look it seems like it might be something you need to start like a chainsaw with an internal combustion engine, we're glad to know it's battery powered. Ball is seeking at least three patents for the "rope interaction" the ascender employs. The design was described to us as using "a standard-sized rope (between three-eighths and five-eighths of an inch) weaved between a series of specially configured rollers that sit on top of a turning spindle. As the battery-powered spindle rotates, it continuously pulls rope through the device."

Ball seems like an outstanding recipient for the award. Not only is he working on inventions that may have practical applications but he's helping the children learn about science. He worked as technical advisor and co-host for the PBS Show "Design Squad" that will hit the air this month. If kid shows on PBS aren't your bag (we don't blame you for that – in fact it'd be a little weird if they were) but you still want to see the inventor in person, he'll be on hand for a panel discussion at the Museum of Science on May 3. He'll be appearing with the recipients of the Lemelson prize from the University of Illinois and from Rensselaer. The two non-MIT prizes are in their inaugural year, both award $30,000 to students for their achievements.

Images of Nate Ball and his invention, the ATLAS Rope Ascender, courtesy of the Lemelson-MIT Program