Exploring Gemini AI and Integration with MuleSoft | MuleSoft Mysore Meetup #45
Student Inventors: What We Need in Our Schools
1. STUDENT INVENTORS: WHAT
WE NEED IN OUR SCHOOLS
Danny Briere: CEO of The STEMIE Coalition and National
Invention Convention & Entrepreneurship Expo
Gabriel Mesa: Teen inventor and Forbes “30 Under 30” for
Energy
Hannah Pucci: Teen inventor, founder of Egghead Ice
Cream, and 2017 CTNext Entrepreneur Innovation Award
Winner
Lucca Riccio: Teen inventor, founder of Lucca Ventures,
and 2017 CTNext Entrepreneur Innovation Award Winner
2. 70+ Years of Collective Experience in Supporting
Invention Education in the Classroom
• Briere:
• The three student inventors on this panel all learned how to invent through
the Connecticut Invention Program (CIC), which has been teaching inventing
in the classroom for 34 years.
• CIC and the Ohio Invention League (25+ years teaching inventing in the
classroom in Ohio) are two of the members of The STEMIE Coalition, a newly
formed umbrella organization to elevate K-12 invention and entrepreneurship
education in schools across the U.S. The STEMIE Coalition runs the annual
National Invention Convention and Entrepreneurship Expo.
• The STEMIE Coalition curriculum, which combines the best practices of the
70+ years of collective experience of state invention education programs, is
open source and free to the public.
3. Gabriel Mesa: “Being a student inventor doesn’t seem
unusual when your classmates are doing it too”
Serial inventor of innovations using piezoelectric materials. His goal is to do social
good by harnessing free energy. Named a Forbes “30 Under 30 for Energy” in 2017
• Six years of being a student in the Connecticut Invention Convention program
instilled a life-long belief that inventing is something everyone can do
• CIC program: in-class curriculum, trained teachers, mentors, invention
conventions for display and competing (local, state, national)
• Skills: problem-solving, design thinking, research, technical writing, persuasive
communication, business plans
• Recent experience on CIC Board of Directors: have seen the ease with which new
schools have been able to implement CIC in their classrooms
4. Hannah Pucci: “It’s important that girls experience the
truth that we can be inventors too”
• Invented award-winning Egghead Ice Cream innovation as part of her experience
in the Connecticut Invention Convention program when she was 11 years old.
Has spent the past five years tenaciously working to collaborate with industry and
business experts to commercialize her invention.
• Inventing in the classroom: students find real problems to solve, work alongside
each other, collaborate, listen to each other’s pitches, and do not fear failing
because of the support of each other and their teachers
• Female inventors: A rarity, but female students in CIC programs do not know that
and plow ahead, confident in their own abilities
• Opportunities for commercializing inventions: UCONN, the State of Connecticut,
and CTNext have strongly supported student inventors coming out of the CIC
program
5. Lucca Riccio: “When we see people experiencing
difficulties, we should figure out ways to help them”
• Invented the Tube Talker after seeing his grandmother struggle to communicate
with family and doctors while she was wearing a full-face oxygen mask. Won
2016 “Most Marketable” award at the National Invention Convention and a 2017
CTNext Entrepreneur Innovation Award.
• CIC school program: invaluable in teaching students the invention process as well
as how to communicate their ideas
• National Invention Convention & Entrepreneurship Expo: essential for student
inventors seeking to compete at the national level and gain more visibility for
their ideas
• Students all over the United States should be given the opportunity to learn how
to invent
