Hannah Haas, a 13-year-old, home-schooled student from Charlotte, NC won the Grand Prize in the second annual, nationwide Bubble Wrap Competition for Young Inventors. Sealed Air Corp., the creator of Bubble Wrap brand cushioning, made the announcement on Jan. 28 in conjunction with the celebration of the 8th annual Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, a holiday honoring the revolutionary packaging material invented nearly 50 years ago and recognized around the world.

Haas’s invention, entitled “Sensory Wallpaper,” used Bubble Wrap to create wallpaper that is designed to stimulate, engage and comfort children afflicted with autism. The invention, which combines a textured bubble surface containing large and small bubbles on a calming, blue wallpaper background, edged out more than 1,400 entries and earned the eighth-grader the competition’s top prize and a $10,000 U.S. savings bond.