Young Innovator Competition Designed to Stimulate Minds

The USF-sponsored contest encourages creativity and ingenuity in schoolchildren and rewards them for their efforts.

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, a local 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 grades K-12 in eight Tampa Bay counties, including Manatee and Sarsota, 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…

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