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CONTEST CATEGORIES

Invention Categories

Once students figure out a cause that is important to them, they should find a specific problem within the category that they think they could solve by inventing! Please choose a category for your team to invent in & explore the examples to get some inspiration!

Note: Please use this list to start the conversation and inspire creativity for your own inventions, not copies of the ideas.

Girl with Horse

ANIMALS

(Recommended for elementary teams)

  • Animal welfare & services

    • Tunnels in railroads made for turtles to safely pass through

    • An mobile application to diagnose your dog's rash (previous project)

    • A way to track and detect homeless dogs in the neighborhood

  • Wildlife conservation

    • ​Artificial intelligence to detect deforestation 
    • Safer animal-tracking systems for research
Girl with Windmill Toy

ENVIRONMENT

(Recommended for all levels)

  • Environmental protection and conservation

    • Water bottle that filters water with just a shake (previous project)​

    • Shower that stops when you are wasting water

  • Alternative & clean energy

    • Solar phone charger​ built into beach umbrella (previous project)

  • Recycling & sustainability 

    • A mobile application to learn how to recycle specific items (previous project)

Doctor Analyzing X-Rays

HEALTH

(Recommended for Middle & High School Teams)

  • Diseases & disorders

    • Heart valve that runs off of renewable energy (previous project)

    • Inhaler that requires less force & precision to work (previous project)

    • Cuffless blood pressure monitor & application (previous project)

  • Patient and family support

    • Portable IV Backpack for children hospitals (previous project)​

  • Treatment & prevention

    • Inflatable ​brace for injured athletes on the field (previous project)

  • Accessible healthcare options

    • Bubblewrap limbs for amputees in 3rd world countries​ (previous project)

Teacher Assisting a Student

EDUCATION

(Recommended for all levels)

  • School Improvements

    • Energy-generating bounce seats for classrooms (previous project)

    • Noise detector that changes color when library gets too loud

    • Efficient air filtering system for school buildings that doesn't need to be replaced often (previous project)

  • Hyrbrid or Remote Learning

    • An application ​to make digital learning at home easier

    • See-through COVID masks to help deaf classmates communicate

Volunteers

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

(Recommended for all levels)

  • Improvements for your own neighborhood

    • Mall parking system that allows people to choose spots based on their special needs ahead of time (previous project)

    • Robot to serve lunches during COVID (previous project)

    • Speed bumps to power street lamps in town (previous project)

  • Natural Disaster Relief

    • Solar powered rescue raft (previous project)

    • Sustainable hurricane shelters (previous project)

Unknown.jpeg

Agriculture and Food 
(Recommended for middle and high school teams)

  • Farming

    • More energy efficient vertical farming, a more sustainable and affordable solution for worldwide food shortages (previous project)

    • Smart tree-planting robot eliminating a need for labor and human monitoring (previous project)

    • Bee drones, supplement pollination due to decreased bee population

  • Food production

    • Nano-packaging, smart-packaging detects food safety and spoiling

    • Slot-drain, a more modern approach to trench drain in food processing factories to prevent standing water and bacterial growth

    • MES, smart technology that traces and analyzes ingredients used in food processing plants to more rapidly detect contamination

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Entertainment
(Recommended for all levels)

  • Music

    • Bitcrusher, adds digital effects to the electric guitar through a small device that mounts onto the instrument

    • Soundbeamer, beam music into your head without the need for headphones using a 3D sensing module and "sound pockets"

    • EyeHarp, enables individuals with disabilities to make music using their gaze instead of their hands through a digital instrument

  • Video gaming

    • Controller grips, make gaming more comfortable

    • VR technology, allows gamer to feel like they are inside of a game

  • Film making 

    • Green screen technology, allows filmmakers to add digital backgrounds to 

    • 3D Printing in stop motion animation & prop making, minimizing time and costs while increasing creative freedom

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Safety 
(Recommended for all levels)

  • Child safety

    • Carbon-monoxide/temperature sensing car seat (previous project)

    • GPS embedded shoes to prevent missing children (previous project)

    • Fun, yet safe, helmets that make kids want to wear them

    • Glowing pods to detect temperature changes in baby's room

  • Transportation safety

    • Crash detecting bike sensors (previous project)

    • Solar-powered bike lanes to provide an illuminated path for cyclists

    • Traffic sign recognition, to detect stop signs and speed limit changes and alert vehicle drivers

Technology

Technology 
(Recommended for all levels)

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