HJMS 7th grader Heads to Dearborn, Michigan with His Invention

Henry James Memorial School is very proud of their 7th grade student Nathan Khuu. Nathan is headed to Dearborn, Michigan in a couple to weeks to compete in the final leg of a year long project known as The Invention Convention. Before Nathan was chosen to participate in the national competition he needed to make it through two tough elimination rounds. By the time Nathan attended the second round of the competition held at UCONN’s Storrs campus, his invention had caught the eye of many in attendance. In addition to being selected for the national competition, he was awarded the Black and Decker sponsored Tool Innovation Award, as well as the CIC recognized inventor award. Next stop nationals!

Nathan’s invention began as all inventions do, recognizing a problem and wanting to find a better, easier solution. As a middle school student Nathan noticed the disruption to class when students raise their hands to be excused from class for the bathroom, the nurse, and so on. In addition to class time lost, sheets and sheets of paper were being used every week in each classroom to record the comings and goings of the students. In some cases the teacher must stop class and write out a pass for the student.

At the first Invention Convention meeting Nathan came with an idea ready to go. Nathan had begun writing a program from scratch that he has since named “Sign Out Helper.” This electronic sign out system has the capability to make students and teachers lives easier, limit the use of paper, save instruction time, and stop unnecessary interruptions, all while storing the data. Here is how it works; Students walk up to the compact touch screen, they type in their name, and then choose from a preset drop down menu with the optional destinations listed. (Bathroom, nurse, office, library…) The program does the rest. It automatically records the time students leave the room and on their return, they check back in at which time the system records the time. Here is Nathan’s favorite feature; the teacher sets time limits for each of the destinations and an alarm will buzz if students have not yet returned. Of course the alarm is optional, however students are quick to return to class when they know there is a time limit!

Nathan has answered two rounds of questions regarding his design, and he says he is very excited to answer more! One of the questions he was asked was “If you had unlimited funds, and all the time in the world…. What would you change?” Nathan is always thinking of the next step, how to make his invention even better so this question was right up his alley. He would like to “have a smaller battery like what an iPhone uses and a more compact system”.

Nathan’s entire family will be traveling to support him in this competition. Henry James will be cheering him on from Simsbury.