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Global children’s contest launched on World Inventors Day to raise awareness of hearing loss and the benefits of treatment
INNSBRUCK, Austria, Nov. 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — MED-EL, a leading provider and inventor of hearing implant systems, today launched its annual worldwide search for inventions of the future through a global children’s contest, ideas4ears.
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The contest invites children aged 6-12 years old from around the world to create an invention to improve the quality of life for people with hearing loss. Entries can be sent via a video, drawing, or sculpture, but the most important factor is for young people to think big and channel their ideas to support those who cannot hear.
The inspiration behind ideas4ears and the Head Judge of the contest is Geoffrey Ball. Geoffrey has an extraordinary life story, when he became deaf as a toddler, he then went on to invent a revolutionary middle ear implant to treat his own hearing loss.
"Inventing is often a process of elimination. In the case of the VIBRANT SOUNDBRIDGE, I had to build and test many devices that didn’t work well enough or didn’t work at all until I finally arrived at the design that was perfect. When I was inventing the components for the middle ear implant back at Stanford University, people would tell me 100 reasons why my invention wouldn’t work, but I only needed one reason why it would." said Geoffrey Ball, Chief Technical Officer at MED-EL and inventor of the VIBRANT SOUNDBRIDGE middle ear implant.
As an accomplished inventor, with over 100 patent filings to his name and many medical device products developed, Geoffrey has used his life experiences to act as a source of encouragement to the young ideas4ears inventors, many of whom are users of hearing implants themselves.
"To all the children out there who have hearing loss and want to find a better solution for themselves, I say never give up inventing, believe in yourself, keep trying, go for your dreams, and as Winston Churchill said never give up, never, never!" Geoffrey said.
The ideas4ears contest celebrates children’s creativity and aims to improve understanding of the challenges associated with hearing loss as well as the benefits of treatment. Parents interested should visit www.ideas4ears.org/enter to submit their child’s entry. The closing date for entries is midnight on 17 January 2023.
Win fabulous prizes! There’s a chance to win a trip to Innsbruck, Austria and some fabulous prize packs.
All ideas are welcome; the only criteria are that the inventions need to have the potential to help improve the lives of people with hearing loss at any age. Follow the ideas4ears Facebook page to be kept up to date on the contest.
About MED-EL
MED-EL Medical Electronics, a leader in implantable hearing solutions, is driven by a mission to overcome hearing loss as a barrier to communication and quality of life. The Austrian-based, privately owned business was co-founded by industry pioneers Ingeborg and Erwin Hochmair, whose ground-breaking research led to the development of the world’s first micro-electronic multi-channel cochlear implant (CI), which was successfully implanted in 1977 and was the basis for what is known as the modern CI today. This laid the foundation for the successful growth of the company in 1990, when they hired their first employees. To date, MED-EL has more than 2,400 employees from around 80 nations and 30 locations worldwide.
The company offers the widest range of implantable and non-implantable solutions to treat all types of hearing loss, enabling people in 134 countries enjoy the gift of hearing with the help of a MED-EL device. MED-EL’s hearing solutions include cochlear and middle ear implant systems, a combined electric acoustic stimulation hearing implant system, auditory brainstem implants as well as surgical and non-surgical bone conduction devices. www.medel.com