Innovate! Ignite! Imagine!
Idaho youth notice the problems everyone else walks past.
Then they do something about it. Invent Idaho gives students in grades K-12 a platform to build solutions to real-world problems and share them with judges who care.
Innovate!
Ignite!
Imagine!
Our Mission
To inspire, encourage, and recognize students for their inventions, designs, and innovations.
Every student deserves the chance to find out where their ideas can lead. We believe youth are capable and creative, not someday, but right now. When they’re given a real opportunity and a real audience, they can create incredible change.
Regional, State, and Nationals
State Finals
Young Inventors are invited to participate in the Invent Idaho culmination State Finals at the University of Idaho.
US Nationals
RTX Invention Convention U.S. Nationals is hosted annually at The Henry Ford and showcases student inventors from among thousands who compete at state and local invention competitions.
Why it matters
Building workforce ready skills one invention at a time.
Ask employers what they're missing and they rarely say technical training. They say communication, critical thinking, creativity, and the persistence to keep going after the first attempt fails. Researchers call these durable skills. A second grader explaining a taped-together prototype and a senior presenting a CAD drawing are practicing the same things, ten years apart.
Communication
Invent Idaho youth present their work to classmates, to families, to their community, and to judges who ask real questions. And they learn to adjust the explanation depending on who's listening.
Persistence
First prototypes fail. So do second ones. The inventor's log records every version that didn't work, and youth learn something that's hard to teach any other way. That a setback is information, not a verdict.
Critical Thinking
Before anything gets built, a student has to define the actual problem, rule out the solutions that already exist, and decide what "working" would even look like.
Creativity
Youth aren't handed a topic. They find a problem in their own lives and imagine something that doesn't exist yet, which is a harder and more valuable skill than solving a problem someone else has already framed for them.
What happens when a young inventor keeps going.
Julianna S from North Idaho is a 5-time repeat inventor and has been invited to present at Nationals 3 times. In 2020, as a 3rd grader, Julianna earned the Best Notebook award and in 2026 has received her first US patent!