17 June 2011 Lincoln University student wins Young Inventor of the Year title

A “crate” idea by Lincoln University student Ben Shannon has won him the title of New Zealand’s Young Inventor of the Year at the National Agricultural Fieldays, Mystery Creek, Hamilton.

Shannon, originally from Wainuioru in the eastern Wairarpapa, took the title and a prize of $1000 for his  “Concertina Crate” invention, a simple solution for expanding or reducing crate space on the back of a ute.

The prize was presented to him by former Prime Minister and one time Associate Minister of Agriculture, the Rt Hon Jim Bolger.

It is the second year running that a Lincoln University student has won this title.

With a strong farming background, Shannon came up with the idea to solve a need he had experienced in day to day farm work and one he knew would be known to others.

A  crate designed to expand or contract in size would be a great accessory to the deck of a ute, he thought, because it would always be handy when more or less crate capacity is needed.

“Whether you’re out farming or in town picking up supplies, a crate able to be concertinaed would be very useful,” he says. “It could be folded out to fit the full deck space or adjusted inwards to half size.

“My invention is a crate with the ability to concertina in or out on the deck of a ute, allowing for quick use and greater versatility in the utilisation of space.”

The “concertina crate” is able to change to half its size through the use of adjusting joints. It features a sliding gate on the rear for stock use and has locks to secure the joints from moving. In contrast to solid crates it doesn’t have to be removed from the ute if extra flat space is needed. It simply concertinas forward.

Shannon is a member of Dr Ian Domigan’s Agricultural Engineering 276 class at Lincoln University. This class deals with the design and management of agricultural and horticultural projects in land, water, machinery and structures engineering.  Dr Domigan’s students have had remarkable success in the Mystery Creek Innovations Competition, and last year’s Young Inventor of the Year title was also won by one of his students, Rupert Barton, from the Wairarapapa too. Dr Domigan is himself a past inventions winner at the national fieldays.

He says he is “absolutely rapt” when his students achieve personal success in this way. 

“We invite them to solve ‘real world’ problems and teach them inventive methodology and they apply that to a problem.

“The competition at the fieldays this year was very intense with the largest number of entries ever.”

Lincoln University had five entries in the Inventions Category of the Innovation Competition and students Jonathan White of Central Canterbury and Sam Ashley of Waikato won a Merit Award for their “Stomp out Stompage” invention.  This invention is an inexpensive, automatically moveable electric fence that slowly exposes a feed source to animals and thus reduces the effect of “stompage”, that is the amount of feed wasted by cows stomping on good feed. It also cuts the time involved in moving a fence forward manually.

Other Lincoln University entries in the competition were by students Alex Aitken of Gisborne,  Andrew Glen originally from Auckland and Natalie Officer of Invercargill.