Los Angeles- March 3rd, 2022--AT&T and Imagination.org, powered by Two Bit Circus Foundation, today announced the winners of the 2021 Inventor’s Challenge. The Inventor’s Challenge empowers young inventors to harness their creative potential and address real issues that they face every day — fostering critical 21st century skills and attitudes like innovation, optimism, empathy, and the willingness to experiment and take risks. With the support of AT&T, Imagination.org challenged children around the world to create a solution to a problem within their homes, schools or communities.
"This year saw an amazing crop of solutions from kids in over 50 cities around the world. Their enthusiastic hard work generated an inspiring array of projects for our judges to choose from,” said Nirvan Mullick, Founder of Imagination.org. “It was difficult to choose the winners from so many impressive entries. We encourage everyone to join us for the 2022 Challenge!”
The 2021 Inventor’s Challenge showcases impressive amounts of resourcefulness, creativity and ingenuity from students in grades pre-k all the way to high school. During a difficult year of social distancing and remote learning, this event provided a fun and inspiring way for kids to work together again. This year’s participants are especially commended for their successful navigation of these new challenges — working with their resources to share ideas, collaborate and create in a virtual setting.
Despite all of the hardships, this year’s global contest had an amazing impact, with over 5,500 students participating globally to invent more than 125 potential solutions to problems around their homes, schools and communities.
Each of the individual winners will receive a Samsung tablet, a Bitsbox kit (a learning system that teaches coding), WildCards (robotics hardware and software platform), and AT&T/Imagination.org/Two Bit Circus Foundation swag! The winners of the Grace Hopper Group Prize will receive a $1000 Seed grant to further develop their invention.
Recipients of the 2021 Inventor’s Challenge Awards are:
- Thomas Edison Prize (Graces PreK-2)
- The Tool Band by Safiya Durrani
- Roswell, Georgia
- Alexander Graham Bell Prize (Grades 3-5)
- Water Meter by Hasini Meruva
- Ashland, MA
- Nikola Tesla Prize (Grades 6-8)
- Smart Solar Cell by Nitiyut Wongbuddha
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Leonardo Da Vinci Prize (Grades 9-12)
- Compost AI by Samyak Shrimali
- Portland, Oregon
- The Grace Hopper Incubator Prize (All Ages) - Group Prize
- Water Tracking App by Aizek Kemp & Max Turczyn-Scheppach
- Lafayette, Colorado
In its fifth annual year, the Inventor’s Challenge has engaged over 26,000 students from across the globe — providing a rewarding and fun way to foster new skills, exercise creativity, and use critical thinking to solve real issues with only the resources they have at hand. Stay tuned to Imagination.org and Two Bit Circus Foundation for information on next year’s Inventor’s Challenge. Or sign up for the newsletter at twobitcircus.org.
