Young Innovator Competition Stimulates Minds of Today's Kids

As any parent knows, kids always have a million ideas floating around in their heads. 

Whether it’s finding a better way to make their beds or an easier way to turn the pages of their textbooks, there’s no limit to a child’s capacity to come up with new ways to do things.

Anton Hopen, an Oldsmar patent lawyer and USF grad, decided to do something to help stimulate these ideas and provide kids with an outlet for their creativity.

Five years ago, Hoppen founded the Young Innovator Competition, a contest open to kids in grades kindergarten through 12 in eight Tampa Bay counties, as a way to encourage kids’ creative side while rewarding the best ideas. 

“We ask the kids who enter the competition to think of a problem, come up with a solution, and tell us what they can do to make a situation better,” said Hopen. 

“We’re trying to stimulate that entrepreneurial spirit in kids,” he said.

The contest, which runs through Jan. 25, is easy to enter and requires little more than an idea and some time spent on the Internet.

All the student has to do is visit the competition’s website and fill out the online entry form. There, they provide a name and trademark for the product, the reason why they came up with the idea and a sketch of the product.

Entrants will be whittled down to 50, and then to a pool of 10 finalists. Those 10 will then undergo a week of training by qualified professionals before making a final presentation to a team of judges at USF’s Patel Center on Feb. 13.

Each applicant will receive a day pass to MOSI, while the top prize is $1,000 for the entrant and his school. Last year Hopen said they received nearly 600 applications.

“What’s nice is that everybody gets something,” Hoppen said. “We want everybody to have motivation to do this.”

A Clearwater High student took home the top prize in her age group in the 2012 contest.

Even with the deadline for entries approaching, Hopen says it’s not too late to apply. 

“We usually get the majority of the applications in the final week,” he said. “Some are coming in at midnight on the last day.”