Yesterday I attended the finals of the 2008 Cracking Ideas Competition, where school children enter inventions from seven regions in the UK, at London's Science Museum.
"Cracking Ideas" is based on the Wallace and Gromit characters by Aardman Animations Limited, and is sponsored by the UK Intellectual Property Office. The idea is to encourage interest in innovation among children. Nick Park chose the winning invention. It was hinted that it may appear in his next Wallace and Gromit short film, A matter of loaf and death.
A press release has lots of details including images of the inventions. The winning entry was for Charlie the Chair Stacker, by Great Arley School in Lancashire. The idea was to save work for their caretaker.
More interesting for the many children present was the actual presence of Wallace and Gromit ! I had no idea Gromit was so big. Here is a picture of Wallace handing over the envelope with the winner's name to David Lammy, the Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property.
I'm quite a fan, too, and was pleased to have a picture taken with my two heroes. I'm the one in the middle.
I was pleased to be able to talk to the father of Samuel Houghton, who as a five-year old received a patent. I posted in April about the invention. Dad, who is a patent attorney, promised me that while he did write the formal claims they were indeed based on his son's ideas.
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