Sarah O’Brien, a senior in industrial design at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, has placed first in the 15th annual Student Design Competition run by the International Housewares Association.
She will receive $2,400 and an all-expense paid trip to the International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago on March 16-18. There, she will make contacts that may lead to selling her product idea to a manufacturer or securing a job upon graduation.
O’Brien designed the Elizabowl, a flexible fruit bowl that expands and contracts to store and display various types and sizes of fruit. Separate compartments for each piece of fruit help minimize bruising and significantly reduce the transfer of ethylene gas that causes over-ripening.
This is O’Brien’s second submission to the contest; she won honorable mention in 2006. Sarah has gone back to school as an adult to become an industrial designer, after having been director of research at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.