Frank DiMeo/University Photography

A Sweet Spots frozen apple dessert is shown in front of Cayuga Lake at sunset.

With ice cream that won't melt when you put it inside a microwave oven, Sweet Spots might well have been a Willie Wonka creation. The new dessert creation -- cored Jonagold apples filled with vanilla ice cream and coated with a caramel and sweet-oat veneer -- is ripe for popping into a microwave. Imagine grandma's warm apple pie a lá mode.

Sweet Spots is now a national finalist in the annual Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Product Development Student Competition in Chicago next month. And Cornell University food science students are pinning their hopes on the creation to retain a fourth championship in five years for the university's Food Product Development Team.

Ice cream inside a microwavable apple? Impossible, you say? It isn't. To prevent the ice cream -- made at Cornell -- from melting during microwave heating, the students have devised a special ice cream-filled tube that fits inside the cored apple. The tube's exterior is coated with polyester, able to withstand microwave heating, and there is foil lining on the inside of the tube to deflect the microwaves. After heating is complete, the consumer can easily remove the tube by pulling its extended plastic tab.

Beyond offering the experience of assembling a food product students believe will be appealing to consumers, Joe Regenstein, Cornell professor of food science and the team's faculty sponsor, says the contest has several benefits. "Many of our students go on to product development careers," he says. "This contest allows the students to develop a host of skills dealing with work as a team. It's about putting together the different parts of a complex project, about how to translate science into a real-life situation, about problem-solving, about presenting material and a host of other life skills. It is a model of experiential learning, and besides, they also get to have some fun."

The apples have their own story. The Cornell team chose this particular variety for its ability to withstand the rigors of microwave heating. The Jonagold was bred in 1953 -- a mix of the Golden Delicious and the Jonathan apple -- at Cornell's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y., and it was introduced commercially in 1968.

In February of this year, the Cornell team submitted a five-page, anonymous report to the IFT Student Association, which runs the competition, as its entry. The report, which earned the team a spot in the finals, included the product concept, market potential, the product formulation, a description of the product packaging, an explanation of the production process and a report on the food safety and quality assurance program.

The team will compete with five other finalists in an oral presentation, a poster display, and a product sampling by industry judges on July 25 and 26 at the IFT convention in Chicago. The winner will be announced July 26.

Sweet Spots is Cornell's fifth entry in this decade-old national contest. The university's first entry, Pizza Pop-Ups, a toaster-ready pizza, won first place in the 1995 contest. In 1996, Cornell's Stir-Ins, arguably the team's most recognizable effort -- pencil-shaped cookies dipped in heat-resistant chocolate and tipped with a hazelnut flavorant for dunking in coffee -- won the top prize. Wrapidos, a cone-shaped tortilla food wrapper, was the winner in 1998.

Members of this year's Cornell team are: Sajid Alavi of Hardwar, India; Torey Arvik of El Toro, Calif.; Ellen Charney of Pittsburgh; Michael Doniger of Scarsdale, N.Y.; Sarah Fogelman of Glemont, N.Y.; Julie Goddard of Lansdale, Pa.; Jennifer Kosse of Albuquerque, N.M.; Lydia Lim of Taipei, Taiwan; Tracy Luckow of Montreal; Meghan McCamey of Ridgefield, Conn.; Elizabeth Moffatt of Wayne, Pa.; Mary E. Presutti of Arlington Heights, Ill.; Andrew Seaberg of Staten Island, N.Y.; Mayank Singh of Roorkee, Uttar Pradesh, India; and Girish Solanki of New Delhi, India.

Sponsored by M&M/Mars, the IFT competition will award a $1,000 first prize to the winning team. This year's competition drew 20 collegiate submissions. The five other finalists and their products are: North Carolina State University, Jammm Singles; University of Wisconsin, Madison, Smoothie Pies; Purdue University, SOY-PRO; University of Minnesota, Sunrise Dippin' Duos; and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Tater Stuffs.