Young Idaho inventors let their creativity shine

MOSCOW — Young inventors from around Idaho converged on the University of Idaho campus Friday and Saturday to find out which inventors’ creations would win in Idaho and which would be going on to the National Invention Convention in June in Michigan.

Their inventions were judged in categories including Adaptations, Gadgets & Games, Jules Verne, Non-working Models and Working Models. There were special awards like Excellence in Game Design, a High School Grand Champion and Best of Show.

Some young inventors won scholarships to the University of Idaho; two won free patent searches from patent attorneys; the U.S. Small Business Administration also gave one inventor the possibility of producing his invention; five were chosen to meet with Idaho Gov. Brad Little at the Capitol Building on March 16; and 25 of the young inventors were chosen to move onto the National Invention Convention at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation June 3-5 in Dearborn, Mich.

The inventions ran the gamut from plastic bags made out of potato waste, to outside decorative lights that change the lighting colors based on the holiday or the season, to wearable jewelry for young children that tracks their location and allows them to buzz their parents if they are separated. Other inventions included glasses that thwart artificial intelligence systems, to a hay baler that cuts, bales and dries the hay, to a robot that cleans the ocean of plastic and oil spills with the ability to detect living organisms caught in the flotsam and jetsam and call animal rescue.

Gray Bright, 38, is a senior director of Design and Development for Games at Hasbro and the emcee of the 2020 Invent Idaho Invention Convention State Finals, which he has hosted for the past four years.

“(These children) give you faith in tomorrow can be better,” Bright, himself an inventor, said. “The path these kids are taking in finding a problem and finding a solution for it sets them apart ... knowing where these kids minds are at this age, they’re craving knowledge.”

Bright wants all the young inventors to know he will help to show them a path forward with their inventions and he will be a resource for them going forward.

Bright, who now works in Rhode Island, returned to the event this year because he knows the impact this kind of event can have on kids and it is the sole reason he participates in Invent Idaho. He asked the young inventors to invent a transporter for him to make travel easier from Rhode Island to Idaho each year.

Catherine Roco, 14, an eighth grader from North Idaho STEM Charter Academy in Rathdrum, made perhaps the most Idaho of inventions by inventing plastic bags made out of potato waste.

Food waste and plastics were the problems Roco wanted to address with her invention. She grew up in Los Angeles and never cared about the environment until she moved to Idaho.

“I had a better appreciation of why we need to do this when I moved to Idaho,” Roco said.

Her invention extracts the starch from potato waste and combines it with vinegar and glycerine to produce plastic bags to carry sandwiches for lunch and other things. It keeps food waste out of landfills where they produce methane gas, a powerful greenhouse gas, and it replaces plastic bags that take thousands of years to degrade with biodegradable bags.

Alexandria Johnson, 13, is a home-schooled eighth grader in Caldwell. She invented Opt-Out Glasses, which render people untaggable in today’s society. Johnson’s invention won Best of Category for Working Models, which means she produced a full-size sample of her invention that really works.

Johnson wore her Opt-Out Glasses all day Saturday as she also won a free patent search and she was chosen to go to the National Invention Convention.

Her glasses cover the facial points that artificial intelligence and cameras use to identify you. Her glasses also use primary colors and reflective colors to further confuse cameras.

“Cameras are everywhere scanning faces,” Johnson said, noting her glasses help preserve privacy and may help keep your eyes healthy. “These scans are degrading to your eyes.”

Rory Spurway, 9, a fourth grader at Garwood Elementary in Rathdrum, invented Sign Buddy. She was inspired by her sister, who took sign language lessons, and a friend in town who is deaf. Her mother once signed a whole movie for Rory’s deaf friend and that inspired Rory’s invention, which allows deaf people to choose an avatar that will sign for them what characters in programs are saying.

“I just wanted them to have a way to know what the characters are saying on the TV,” Spurway said. “The thing I like about this is it gave me the opportunity to help in some way in the community and to help people.”

Spurway’s invention received third place in the Non-working Models category, which is for inventions that would be too large, expensive, or technical to build. Spurway had to design a blueprint and a 3-D model or sample of the invention. She was also chosen to go to the National Invention Convention.

Adam Goellner, 8, a second grader at Cynthia Mann Elementary in Boise, said his inspiration for his decorative outdoor lights that never have to be taken down came when his mom and dad said on more than one occasion that they did not have time to put up the outside lights for Christmas.

His lights can be put up once and used all year with an app on your phone that you can use to change those Christmas-colored lights to Easter pastels or red, white and blue for the Fourth of July. His idea even allows the app to help you select the colors you want to accent your house.

Goellner’s favorite part of the project was “typing all the labels,” he said.

Grant Chouinard, 11, a sixth grader at Forrest M. Bird Charter School in Sandpoint, was bothered by photos on the internet of dead whales with their bodies full of garbage, and sea turtles with plastic straws stuck in their noses. He and his sister, Piper Chouinard, 6, a first grader at Naples Elementary in Sandpoint, got to work on the Blubberfish, a solar-powered robot that cleans up plastic and other floating pollution and oil spills in the ocean.

The Blubberfish will also detect if it has a living organism in its grasp and will either remove the troubling pollution from the animal or if it cannot, the robot will call animal rescue.

Grant Chouinard’s Blubberfish won second place for the fifth- and sixth-grade level in the Jules Verne category, which takes in all projects that would fit into another category, but are too futuristic or fanciful to be judged against more practical inventions.

Ben Simmons, of Hayden, saw a teacher at his school miss out on job opportunities and suffer embarrassment because of color blindness.

Simmons, 14, an eighth grader at North Idaho STEM Charter Academy in Rathdrum, took the next seven months to produce his Color Clash Glasses, which helps people suffering from color blindness to see colors with actual footage from the glasses that interface with the wearer’s brain.

Simmons learned he really loved the research aspect of inventing. Simmons won second place in the Jules Verne category for grades seven and eight. He was also selected as an alternate for the National Invention Convention.

Isabella Platt, 14, an eighth grader at North Idaho STEM Academy in Rathdrumm=, is the oldest child in her family, and her younger siblings and cousins inspired her to invent the Child Abduction Safety Trinkets (CAST) jewelry set that children can wear. The jewelry, which includes bracelets, necklaces, earrings, watches and rings, have two buttons that allow children and parents to buzz each other. She plans to sell the basic set for $35, but customized sets would sell for $50. Her slogan is “to protect children, to keep parents in the know.”

Wells may be contacted at mwells@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2275.