%secondary_title%: The 200 Best Inventions of 2024

Alex Bratianu-Badea experienced his first de-icing—in which a plane is sprayed with hot chemicals to remove ice—in 2015 as a Massachusetts Institute of Technology grad school student. Unsurprisingly, the process delayed his flight out of Boston. He and De-Ice cofounder Ruben Toubiana spent years developing an alternate solution: applying thin strips of tape to the aircraft fuselage that defrost the plane using a physics process similar to the one used by induction stoves. This winter, the startup's pilot-controlled system will be installed on Air Canada's A320s. Because it doesn't require hot chemicals, Bratianu-Badea says, "it works in parallel with other ground operations, like boarding and putting in the luggage," which should mean fewer delays.