Two senior industrial design students at the University of Notre Dame placed second and third at the 12 th annual International Housewares Association (IHA) Student Design Competition held March 20 to 22 at theMcCormickPlaceExpositionCenterinChicago.
The competition was part of the IHA International Home and Housewares Show, the worlds largest home goods and house wares marketplace showcasing thousands of new products and designs.
Selim Nurudeen fromFriendswood,Texas, took second place and received a $1,600 cash prize for his product designClean Sweep,an innovative broom that deals with the inefficiencies of using a dust pan by integrating a vacuum function into the body of a broom.
Michael Elwell fromAmherst,Ohio, finished in third place and won $1,000 for his product designMagnificare,a device that helps people with arthritic hands open push-and-turn prescription bottles and also includes a magnifying glass to help read labels.
Elwell also was recently selected as an Industrial Designers Society of America merit award winner and will compete against students from nine other schools in the Midwest district conference April 7 to 9 at the Champaign-Urbana campus of theUniversityofIllinois.
The studentsdesigns were among the top six designs awarded at the IHA Student Design Competition, chosen from more than 200 product concepts from college students nationwide.Their designs were developed during the fall 2004 semester in a course titledProduct Design Researchtaught by Paul Down, associate professor of industrial design at Notre Dame.
The fact that were both from the same school and placed in such a tough competition, that says that its definitely quality over quantity here,Nurudeen said.
Nurudeen and Elwell benefited from the insight and advice of fellow senior Bradley Jolitz, who won the IHA competition in 2004.
Down has seen a number of Notre Dame students place in the IHA competition since they first began participating in 1997.
We engage in this process because its a great portfolio builder,Down said.Down was pleased with the results of this years competition and attributed Nurudeen and Elwells success to hard work andtenacity.
Those two students have made remarkable gains in their proficiencies,Down said.Students like them are the reason Im teaching.
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