Winners for K-12 Inventure Prize @ Georgia Tech Announced

For the sixth year running, Georgia Tech recently hosted the K-12 InVenture Prize. The competition, modeled after the Georgia Tech InVenture Prize, encourages elementary, middle school, and high school students to engage with invention and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) concepts.

The mission is to develop the next generation of engineers and entrepreneurs by making invention education accessible to all students and teachers across the state of Georgia. More than 4,000 students from 22 Georgia counties participated, with winners qualifying to represent the state of Georgia at the National Invention Convention & Entrepreneurship Expo (NICEE) later this year. All winners also received a free patentability search and patent application (if patentable) from Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton on behalf of GIPA.

To prepare for the competition, students were encouraged to immerse themselves in the engineering design process by identifying real-world problems and designing solutions that consider essential aspects of invention and design – such as ethical issues, environmental sustainability, and marketability. Student teams first competed within their schools before advancing to the Georgia Tech event. Industry experts and Georgia Tech faculty judge the inventors and their inventions according to practicality, knowledge base, design-based thinking, creativity, marketability, social responsibility, enthusiasm and communication, and manufacturing.

The High School Division winning team, Quic-Cric from Walton High School. Students Rishab Veldur, Eric Simon, and Katherine McNeice with teacher Ann Baxley and Scott Frank, CEO of AT&T Intellectual Property and GIPA Chair.