Chicago Innovation Awards

By Michael Arndt, Damian Joseph, Venessa Wong

Chicago may have lost out on the 2016 Olympics, but it still hosts an annual competition in innovation. After poring through more than 200 entries, the judges of this year's Chicago Innovation Awards honored these Top 10. The 2009 winners range from huge institutions such as the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago to a startup called Rescue Vac Systems, an emergency equipment maker begun by a veteran firefighter. In addition, Abbott Laboratories (ABT) picked up the People's Choice Award, based on votes registered at the Chicago Innovation Awards Web site, while another Chicago-area firefighter was awarded a special "visionary" award for his public safety invention. Here are profiles of the most innovative companies and people in metro Chicago.