VIDEOS: 2017 Inventor’s Challenge Award Winners

For the past several months, AT&T has been collaborating with Imagination Foundation on our second-annual Inventor’s Challenge – bringing together young people from around the world to create innovative, imaginative and often totally viable solutions that solve problems in their schools and communities. Imagination Foundation and the AT&T Intellectual Property team of judges had the very challenging job of picking winners (one for each age category) from the thousands of applicants.

The Nikola Tesla Prize (Grades 6–8) goes to Villanova, Pa., student and 2016 second prize winner Bram’s “Integrated Stress Fault Detector (ISFD).” The ISFD is a potential solution to the devastation caused by building collapses. Using an arduino microprocessor and a flex sensor, this device can alert emergency services when it detects excessive stress on structures like support beams, allowing more time for evacuation. Yes, he really is 14 years old.

And finally, The Leonardo Da Vinci Prize (Grades 9–12) goes to Kellyn from Manchester, N.H., for her “Switch Shelf.” The Switch Shelf is a simple and clever invention for people living in small spaces. With wheels fitted in the back of a shelf, this piece of furniture can function as both a standup shelf and a flat rollaway storage solution. It works by “… combining two organizational methods into one piece of furniture.” 

If you’d like to see all of the inventions, check out the videos on the Imagination Foundation Inventor’s Challenge playlist.