Chase Lewis of Chapel Hill (NC) invented a plastic, football-shaped pod to carry breathing masks to people trapped in burning buildings, and his invention has won him the XPRIZE–Disney Big Hero 6 Challenge and a trip to Hollywood, where he walked the red carpet at the premiere of “Big Hero 6” and was recognized as a real-world counterpart to the heroes of the film.
Chase hopes that the Emergency Mask Pod will be manufactured for use by fire departments and emergency personnel everywhere.
Hundreds of videos were submitted and narrowed down to 20 finalists. From there, 6 winners were selected based on a combination of public voting and the scores from a panel of judges: Dr. Ed Catmull, President of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios; Gwynne Shotwell, president and CEO of SpaceX; Dean Kamen, an inventor, entrepreneur, and founder of FIRST ®; Anousheh Ansari, co-founder and chairwoman of Prodea Systems (and the first female private space explorer); and Jon Snoddy, VP, Walt Disney Imagineering Research and Development.
