SWOCC release – Coos Bay, OR – Southwestern Oregon Community College kicks off our South Coast Innovation Challenge (an Invent Oregon semifinal event) by welcoming Abigail van Gelder, Director of the Portland State University Center for Entrepreneurship and head of the Invent Oregon (InventOR) team. On Thursday, October 26, 2023 at 6:30 pm on our Coos Campus (1988 Newmark Ave., Coos Bay) in the Umpqua Hall lecture room 184, Ms. Van Gelder will be discussing the InventOR competition for the 2023-24 academic year. The Invent Oregon Collegiate Challenge is a competition for college and university innovators and entrepreneurs with ideas for inventions addressing today’s most pressing problems. Through the Invent Oregon program, students receive up to $2,500 in development grants to take their invention from an idea to a working prototype. We encourage any students with a creative invention idea, or new solution to benefit our community and society, to attend and learn more. Community members willing to help mentor student teams or who have resources which can help invention and prototyping are also encouraged to attend. Who is eligible to participate on the SWOCC IventOR team? Any full-time SWOCC student, regardless of the degree or program they are pursuing; Any high school student who is currently dual enrolled in SWOCC classes, regardless of the degree or program they are pursuing. This year’s South Coast Innovation Challenge will culminate in a student invention showcase in early April 2024. For more information about this event, please contact Dr. Aaron Coyner Southwestern’s InventOR program lead at 541-888-7244 or aaron.coyner@socc.edu. For more information about the InventOR program visit: https://www.inventoregon.org. To learn more about engineering degrees at Southwestern visit: https://www.socc.edu/engineering/.
