"It's not just about displaying inventions but encouraging them," Torres said, which is why he founded Mini MIBA, which has each visitor aged six to 12 draw and give a description of an idea for an invention. Each month, the MIBA board members, along with the Spanish patent office and a team of designers choose one design out of about 400, "and we make your invention come true!" as the flier reads.
He said the idea is to is to encourage kids to think of inventing as a career they can develop in the future, like in science or engineering. However, for one lucky winner a month, designers and the patent office volunteer to help the kid designers create a prototype that they could sell, if they wanted to.
For kids, "the age isn't a problem to be creative, they have a problem doing the business," said Torres, speaking very highly of the local patent office who, pro bono, helped 35 children file patents in their own names in the first year alone.
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com
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