Umpqua Community College students advance to InventOR collegiate challenge state finals
Written by Press Release on June 6, 2023
First-time multiple UCC teams have advanced to state finals in InventOR
ROSEBURG, Ore., — Two teams from Umpqua Community College (UCC) have advanced to InventOR collegiate challenge state finals to compete for a top prize of $30,000. InventOR is the only competition for college and university students in Oregon to take innovations that address today’s most pressing problems from an idea to a working prototype.
Team LearnSesh and Team AJJ will represent Umpqua Community College at the upcoming 7th Annual InventOR collegiate challenge on June 22. The two teams will present their prototypes to generate power with motion and help educators transform learning using virtual reality (VR). Team members are students in UCC Computer Programming Club and Computer Science classes taught by associate professor Vincent Yip. The team members are Avid Choum-Starkey, Joanna Clark, Jonathan Humphries, and Isaiah Weiss.
“Team LearnSesh and AJJ from UCC have incorporated cutting edge technology to help solve real-world problems,” said Joshua Ogle, dean of Career Technical Education (CTE) at Umpqua Community College. “From power needs to new and inventive ways to teach, both teams from UCC are thinking outside the box and this embodies the UCC spirit. We could not be prouder of our two teams and look forward to the next steps on June 22.”
The teams will compete at the InventOR finals at The Redd East in southeast Portland. The winning team will take home $30,000 in prize money along with valuable mentors and resources to help take their inventions from concept to commercialization. The goal of the program is to provide students with mentorship, education, and to empower them as innovators. All participating teams receive $2,500 in development grant money which aims to take their invention from an idea to a working prototype while learning about the process of commercialization.
InventOR is made possible by The Lemelson Foundation, Business Oregon, Oregon Community Foundation, The Ford Family Foundation, Horan MediaTech Advisors, The Roundhouse Foundation, Stoel Rives, Wells Fargo and Portland State University.
