55 Connecticut Students to Compete in National Invention Convention

Next week, 55 Connecticut students will travel to Washington, D.C. to compete at the National Invention Convention and Entrepreneurship Expo. 

The young Connecticut inventors were selected from the semi-final competition held in Storrs just a few a weeks ago. 

Among the 200 students from 15 states heading to D.C. are three local students from the Talcott Mountain Science Academy. 

“Us students, we’re like the next generation," Dash Corning, a seventh grade student at Talcott Mountain Science Academy, said. "We're going to be the people that have to clean up the world and create new things." 

And they are doing just that. 

Using Bluetooth technology, the Forget-Me-Not will automatically remember items, such as your phone, keys or laptop and alert you if you forget them before you leave your home. 

“There are a lot of things on the market that help you find things. This helps you remember things," Emma Ruccio, a sixth grade student at Talcott Mountain Science Academy, said. 

All of the students from Talcott Mountain Science Academy have a personal connection to their inventions. 

“Me and my cousin went to play on the ice by a lake, we decided that it looked thick enough so we went on it and it started to crack and we almost fell in," Ryder Bidwell, a sixth-grade student at Talcott Mountain Science Academy, said. 

This is a danger Ryder hopes his invention will help avoid. 

“My invention is an app with an add-on accessory that allows you to detect the thickness of ice," Ryder said. “It’s a plastic box with an artometermicropod processor on the inside attached to an ultrasonic sensor." 

Plug that into an app that Ryder also created by himself, and you have the Ice Alert. 

Dash Corning used his passion for online gaming to create a new parental control software. 

“Argus works by analyzing patterns of keystroke and the behaviors of the user rather than the content of the web page or game," Dash said. “This is the outcome of the algorithm and as soon as it crosses the threshold of gaming, then it will start counting up the likeliness that you’re playing a game and once it gets to 100 it will alert your parent." 

“When I first saw it I couldn’t believe it, I was just amazed that he could do that it was great," Dash's mother, Laura, said. 

Coordinators of the National Competition are expecting a lot more greatness that will kick off this time next week. 

“It’s going to be the trip of a life time," Danny Briere, CEO of STEMIE Coalition, said. "Kids are going to be able to go and meet other kids just like them and see other inventions and just have a general good time.” 

The Connecticut Invention Convention is raising travel funds for the student inventors through a GoFundMe page and through a mobile cause campaign. 

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