Innovation on Display at the Oklahoma Young Student Inventors Exposition Published November 19, 2019

Young innovators and inventors from across Oklahoma will gather at Rose State College for the thirty-first annual Oklahoma Student Inventors Exposition, Tuesday, February 25, 2020. Almost two hundred students from grades K-12 will present their innovative ideas to judges, hoping to take home first prize in their category or division. 

The Oklahoma Student Inventors Exposition began in 1988 as a brain-child of Julian Taylor, an inventor and entrepreneur, Rose State Regent Betty J.C Wright, a teacher, William Enter, an inventor, and Bob Rhea, a patent agent. The purpose of the event was to promote and advance STEM initiatives in Oklahoma schools, and to give young inventors an opportunity to use their problem-solving, creative-thinking, and critical-thinking skills by creating inventions to solve everyday problems. 

The exposition is judged by patent officers, patent attorneys, Tinker Air Force Base servicemen and women, and Rose State College Engineering and Science faculty.

“STEM jobs are in high demand in the public sector and if we are going to be able to fill those jobs with qualified individuals we must start growing the passion at an early age,” stated Betty JC Wright, co-founder of the Inventors Exposition. “When you see what these young inventors can create you’ll be amazed and hopeful.” 

Previous winners have included the Safe-T-Desk, an invention of Kevlar-lined panels that attach to student desks attached via Velcro, and removed in the event they were needed as a shield in the event of an active-shooter event. Other inventions have included a Remote-Control Toilet Seat Warmer, the Trash Taxi, the Kid Tracker, and the Curve Alert.

The Exposition is open to students in public, private, homeschool, charter and parochial schools. 

The Oklahoma Student Inventors Exposition will take place inside the Rose State College Hudiburg Chevrolet Center on Tuesday, February 25, 2020. Set-up and judging will take place from 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m, with an awards ceremony from 12:50 to 1:40 p.m. 

To register a student for the Inventors Exposition or for more information call Betty Wright at (405) 424-2307 or email Rwright20@att.net.