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Lafayette Journal and Courier Design students sweep 'Eye for Why' contest February 1, 2006 Scott Shim, an assistant professor of visual and performing arts, will not say that the industrial design program at Purdue University is on a roll. Shim, an advisor to Purdue's industrial design students, will not say that high profile wins at national and international competitions have made him a design celebrity of sorts. But after Purdue students swept the top three places in "Eye for Why," a national competition associated with the Industrial Designers Society of America on Tuesday, he did say the future seems encouraging. "The best part is getting recognized by your peer designers," Shim said. "The design discipline doesn't bring in million dollar grants. We exhibit our work through competitions and that's how we get recognized." Three Purdue students collectively won $8,000 for three new inventions, while Shim took home $2,000 for serving as advisor to the grand prize winner who designed a new filtering water bottle. The wins come after two other successful Purdue designs --one for a new approach on a child's bicycle which was named a 2005 Invention of the Year by TIME magazine, and one for a new computer concept that took a $50,000 prize in a Microsoft Corp. contest last month. "Purdue's ID (industrial design) department encourages its students to analyze the guidelines and come up with interesting concepts that are in the spirit of the project," said Nick Poteracki, 21, who received $5,000 for his grand prize design. "I came up with the concept when I was trying to improve on portable water filtration. The idea seemed simple enough and it made a lot of sense to stray from the 'water goes through filter' model that we see in refrigerators," he said. The water bottle with the built in filter reduces the risk of contaminating the filter with a user's own fluids, since it sinks to the bottom of the device, away from the user's mouth. However, despite the usefulness of the device, Shim said the chances of commercial development are lower than they would be for a professional's work. "It's more about an opportunity for students to get a job," he said. Companies "look at students and whether they have the potential to think creatively." That's fine with Andrew Monteleone, 22, who captured third place and $1,000 with physical and massage therapy stones that can be used for three different avenues of treatment. "This kind of exposure is hard to beat," he quipped. "As far as it opening up opportunities for me, I certainly hope so. If anybody is interested, I need an internship and a job."
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