Inventanooga event brought middle and high schoolers to The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Students proposed ideas for businesses and products and presented them to a panel of business owners and local entrepreneurs.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga played host to Inventanooga 2023, a competition that gives middle and high school students the opportunity to solve a real-world problem by coming up with an idea or product to tackle said problem.
According to an article on The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s website, the Inventanooga event was sponsored by The University of Tennessee, STEM School Chattanooga, Hamilton County Schools, the Junior League of Chattanooga, the Public Education Foundation, and Top Flight paper company. The event began at STEM School Chattanooga several years ago but grew too large to be accommodated and found community partnerships invaluable in keeping the event alive.
Dr. Subin Im, who is the head of the Rollins College of Business Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship, discussed the reasoning for bringing Inventanooga to The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, saying, “We want to host this event as part of helping the young entrepreneur develop their creativity and their skills into a real business. We just tell them that we are here to help them so a lot of them have the motivation to stay in Chattanooga, and we can help them to prosper. We want them to know Chattanooga is a great entrepreneurial community. We have all the resources and all the players and the ecosystem.”
The idea of the event is to give students the opportunity to see what it is like to be an entrepreneur by having to present proposals for panels and receive constructive criticism and feedback on those ideas.
Kyle Carrasco, who serves as the program director of Inventanooga and is a teacher at STEM School Chattanooga, said on the day of the event, “They’re being treated as professionals today. I’m hoping that they’ll just learn how to have confidence in their ideas. Ultimately, I hope that they have a great day being able to present their own original ideas. For all intents and purposes, every kid knows now how to successfully problem solve; they’ve proven that through this project. Their presentation today is a celebration of that work.”
The event has three categories of presentations: Ideators, Designers, and Executives. Ideators research and solve a real-world problem with an idea. Designers do the same, but also design a physical concept for that idea. Executives do those things and then also create a business plan.
In the Ideators category, the winning team was Jamiee Davis and Korianna Lewis from East Hamilton High School, who created Emergenshield, which will protect classrooms in the event of a school shooting.
The Designers category was won by Grace Conley, Layla Freeman, and Dania Karrar of East Hamilton Middle School. The team created an app called Unwind which connects students to their counselors in times of anxiety.
Two teams tied for first place in the Executives category: Eliana Berger, Arna Stamper, Aidan Farnsworth, and Taylor Boyd, of STEM School Chattanooga, who created C.U.B.E., and Sarah Bolus, Isaac Goins, Xander Robillard, and Connor Vinson, of STEM School Chattanooga, who created Caver’s Guidebook. C.U.B.E is Collapsible Unit Based Environment, a cubicle to help shield those who are working from distractions in their environment. Caver’s Guidebook is a website that helps cavers prepare for their adventures with news, updates, and safety tips about local caves. The winning team members all received a $2,000 scholarship to the Gary W. Rollins College of Business.
Jim David, the principal of STEM School Chattanooga, said the event is intended to help motivate students to become more adept at thinking critically. He said, “When kids leave school, we want them to be problem solvers,” David said. “We want kids to not wait until the boss says, ‘Do X, Y, Z.’ We want the boss to be able to say, ‘Here’s the problem,’ and the kid says, ‘I don’t know how to solve that, but I’ve done these 12 other things. I bet I can figure it out.’”
For more information about The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, visit the school’s website.