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The annual quest for a coveted spot in the final of the Falling Walls Lab competition saw 28 participants pitching their innovative ideas at the Tohoku University TOKYO ELECTRON House of Creativity on August 31.

The Falling Walls Lab is an international competition started in 2011 for innovative young minds. Contestants pitch their ideas and initiatives for social change in a 3 minute presentation, after which they field questions from the jury. Contestants are then judged on the "breakthrough factor" of their research, the social relevance of their work, and the persuasiveness of the presentation.

Falling Walls Lab Sendai is held every year to select contestants from all scientific disciplines. The three winners this year are from Tohoku University.

Yuanyuan Guo of the Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences, won the top prize for her presentation titled "Breaking the Wall of Brain-Machine Interface."

Second prize went to Fabien Dalsheimer of the Graduate School of Engineering, who presented on "Heart Transplant Candidates' Quality of Life."

While Yuri Sasaki from the School of Medicine, came in third with her research on "Vaccine and Adjuvant."

Guo, Dalsheimer and Sasaki will join winners from other regional contests around the world for the Falling Walls Lab Final in Berlin on November 8-9.

For a bit of fun, Falling Walls Lab Sendai had a new category this year - an audience choice award - which went to Ronnapee Chaichaowarat from the Graduate School of Engineering. His presentation, titled "Breaking the Wall of Cycling Leg Fatigue," clearly resonated with many in the room.