On April 6, the inventors of the future got a chance to show their best ideas at the Goodwin College Business and Manufacturing Center in East Hartford. Young inventors and their families from across Connecticut showed off their inventions on April 6 at the second annual Local Invention Convention for Independent Study Students.
“Who here is an inventor?” Goodwin’s Manufacturing Management Program Director Al Pucino asked the 21 students before they presented their ideas to a panel of judges. Pucino acted as one of the judges for the event. “We need inventors to solve the problems of the future. We’re looking for you to do it.”
“Nobody else is going to do it,” Pucino told the students, encouraging them to keep pursuing new ideas and innovations.
The independent study students came from Bethany, Guilford, Simsbury, Farmington, Windsor, New Haven, Cheshire, and Bridgeport. Students from Ezra Academy in Woodbridge also participated in the event. Students worked independently on inventions to solve problems of their own choosing as part of the CT Invention Convention, a 33-year-old program designed to develop, encourage, and enhance critical thinking skills through invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The local invention convention is the first opportunity for the students to present their inventions to judges and each other, receive feedback, and hear encouragement from authority.
Members of Goodwin’s Manufacturing teaching staff recognized the hard work of all of the students, and selected four winners—Kataliah Brown, Jake Clark, Connor Park, and Sarah Restelli—to go on to the CT State Final Invention Convention on April 30.
“”In today’s world and even more so in the future, it is not enough to just know something. What makes you valuable is what you can do with that knowledge to solve a problem or make something happen.,” Jake Mendelssohn, CIC Outreach Director, said. “The ‘Art of Doing’ is the foundation of Goodwin College and of the CT Invention Convention, which is why we are so please to be working together to enhance students’ success in school and their careers beyond.”
For more information on the CT Invention Convention, visit ctinventionconvention.org.
Goodwin University is a nonprofit institution of higher education and is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), formerly known as the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). Goodwin University was founded in 1999, with the goal of serving a diverse student population with career-focused degree programs that lead to strong employment outcomes.