This month, the Trinity College Entrepreneurship Center hosted the Global Youth Invention Summit Hackathon at Trinity College’s Innovation Hub in downtown Hartford, inviting middle school students from the Hartford area as well as middle and high school students from Singapore, Mexico and China.
More than 20 international students teamed up with 15 students from Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Hartford, Global Communications Academy in Hartford, East Hartford Middle School and Sunset Ridge Middle School in East Hartford to solve a pet safety challenge by coming up with new inventions to protect pets from things that could harm them.
The program was coordinated by Trinity, the Connecticut Inventors Convention, and the World Youth Inventors Summit. Trinity College students and teachers from the three visiting countries and Hartford were on hand to support the students as they tried their hand at invention.
“It’s a really unique opportunity for our students to interact face-to-face with students from far-flung cultures and collaborate to solve cultural problems,” said Oluwakayode Adebowale, executive director of East Hartford’s Blended Learning and Study Center and science teacher. “They quickly met other students who may or may not speak English, and had to communicate and get to know each other using online and other tools, and invent a new product that could be used in any country. It’s a great developmental experience for our students.”
Students have invented a range of pet protection products, including special collars that can be detected by cars when they are nearby and automatic repellent sprays that keep pets away from certain areas.
Alex Cacciato, 25, co-founder of Flippit.com, talked about his experience founding and running a startup while studying at Trinity College: “I started this business with my parents because we wanted to see what was out there for us. [losing a valued item to TSA during an airport security screening] “This is something that doesn’t happen to other people,” he explained to the students, encouraging them to turn problems in their lives into solutions that impact the world. Flippit has been installed in airports across the US, including nearby Bradley International Airport.
The international students were in town to show off their inventions at the Connecticut Invention Convention (CIC) 2024 Finals, held June 8 at the Gampel Pavilion at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.
Danny Briere is Executive Director of Trinity College. Entrepreneurship Center.
