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Philadelphia University Industrial Design Student Wins $25,000 in Staples National Design Competition
Sarah Pantaleo, a senior Industrial Design student at Philadelphia University, has won the $25,000 top prize in a Staples design competition for the next great office product.
Pantaleo’s winning design of the SpindleRack – an organizational and space-saving tool for CD storage – was announced Sept. 7 in New York, after an expert panel of judges reviewed the designs of ten finalists and online votes from more than 12,000 people were tabulated.
“It was very exciting – I was in shock for 24 hours,” said Pantaleo, of Harleysville, Pa. She developed the SpindleRack with Mike Leonard while an intern with
Duzeo Product Design, Leonard's Bala Cynwyd-based design firm. Leonard is also an Industrial Design adjunct faculty member and coordinator of the junior year program.
“We are enormously proud of Sarah and we are grateful for the mentorship she enjoyed from Mike Leonard,” said Gotz Unger, director of Philadelphia University’s Industrial Design Program. “It is typical of Sarah to focus on something and to resolve it to the highest standard,” he added. “We are sure to hear more of her accomplishments in the years to come.”
Pantaleo said she thinks her design did so well because it eliminates waste by storing CDs on the rack they come on, organizes them with tabs that slide onto the rack, and it is also small and portable. “I think this presented a need that hasn’t been met yet, and the judges saw potential in it,” Pantaleo said.
Staples received more than 13,700 entries for the Innovation Quest competition, most of them from professional designers. “I was the youngest one there,” Pantaleo said. “Many were successful business people who already had patents on products, and here I am a college student.”
In addition to winning $25,000, Pantaleo will receive royalties on the SpindleRack if Staples opts to manufacture the item. She plans to use some of her winnings to pursue a patent for the SpindleRack, and save the rest—possibly to start a business, buy a house or attend graduate school.
ALSO SEE:
http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/staples/22668/
THIS WEEK UPDATE:
CBS 3's Ukee Washington spotlights "genius
inventor" Sarah Pantaleo '06;
watch video that features Sarah's Spind-Ex
invention on cbs3.com >>
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