Teams of students from Connecticut’s Technical High Schools worked together to develop prototype products that could be manufactured and marketed in Connecticut in the future. The projects were made possible through a new competition launched this year to give real world experience to future inventors and entrepreneurs.

“Connecticut’s technical high schools have a tradition of producing inventors of products that contribute to our lives and to Connecticut’s economy, said CTHSS Superintendent Abigail L. Hughes. This program is designed to give students an opportunity to use their technical skills and their creativity to design and manufacture a product that may become part of our everyday lives and may also result in a new start-up company in this state one day.”

The program, called the Yankee Ingenuity Challenge, is sponsored by grants from the Connecticut Technical High School Foundation and the Connecticut Business and Industry Education Foundation. It provides seed money to help student teams develop their prototype products and bring them from design to manufacturing and production stage with the support of teachers an industry mentors.

Three finalist teams presented their products to a panel of judges at the Connecticut Manufacturing Careers Expo II on June 5 at the Connecticut Expo Center in Hartford, The teams made 15-minute presentations of their new products, how they were developed and how they are used. The panel of judges included: Rob Simmons - Connecticut’s Business Advocate, Joseph Brennan - Vice President CBIA, and Tim Davenport, Connecticut Technical High School Foundation.

The winning team was from Platt Technical High School of Milford who designed and built a retractable mounting for an LCD project. The other two finalists were the teams from Norwich Technical High School who invented a collapsible tray for an infant's car seat, and Kaynor Technical High School of Waterbury who built a muffler/silencer for a gas-powered lawn mower.

The Platt Tech team will be receiving additional scholarship funds and will have an opportunity to showcase the product before Connecticut’s manufacturing leaders attending the Manufacturing Careers Expo.

The Platt Tech team being presented the first place award
Platt Tech Team
Ian Jackson, Brittnie Samuals
Instructor David Tuttle

Platt Tech product - retractable mounting for an LCD project

Norwich Tech Finalist Team
Jolette Riley, Valerie Lusser, Michael Mollinari, and Jeffery Freitas
and Instructors Thuan Huynh, (Kirsten Nicholas not in photo)

Norwich Tech - collapsible tray for an infant's car seat

Kaynor Tech Finalist Team
Stephanie Costa, Jonathan Green, Stephen Sobeleski,and Shawn Smith
Instructor: Harold Haavik

Kaynor Tech - muffler/silencer for a gas-powered lawn mower