Two Paul Duke STEM Students Gain Recognition at National Invention Convention

Recently Rohan Kumar and William Susskind, two rising seniors from Paul Duke STEM High School (PDHS), championed great success at the National Invention Convention at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. 

However, the journey to get to Nationals was far from easy. First Kumar and Susskind had to compete in the Inventure Prize Competition at Georgia Tech, a statewide competition where their invention DoorBully was nominated to compete nationally through Invention Convention Worldwide (ICW).

ICW is a program that seeks to teach students to solve problems and become critical thinkers. The program aims to prepare students across the country to be able to meet the needs of and excel in the 21st-century STEM-related workforce.

However, ICW takes a contrasting approach to STEM, combining science, technology, engineering and math with invention and entrepreneurship. ICW has 135,000 students participating in their program annually, making it a giant in student-based STEM. 

ICW hosts a national convention annually that showcases student inventions from across the nation, which have already competed and been successful at statewide and local competitions. This year, the convention was held June 7-9, showcasing over 338 inventions from 20 states. 

DoorBully’s creation

The creation of DoorBully started at PDHS through Problem-Based Learning taught in every class, teaching students how to use the Engineering Design Process. 

Dr. John Mobley, an Engineering Teacher and Makerspace Manager at PDHS, has known Kumar and Susskind for three years. Once the students identified the problem of school safety, Mobley helped sponsor them while they designed their product.

“As Lead Teacher, my main objective was to provide tools, feedback and support during the Engineering Design Process,” said Mobley. “The Makerspace at PDHS also provided a safe workspace for William and Rohan to prototype and iterate at school.”

With Mobley’s assistance, the students went through all the parts of the design process: brainstorming, ideation, prototyping and communication. 

“In planning DoorBully, we were alarmed by local statistics on gun violence and active shooter incidents in Gwinnett County,” said Kumar and Susskind. “We researched existing classroom safety solutions and found them non-compliant with fire codes.

“This drove us to independently design DoorBully, an innovative system that automatically locks down classroom doors, provides visual indicators for teachers, integrates with a website for first responders to monitor door statuses and utilizes microphones to pinpoint an active shooters location, thereby enhancing safety for students and educators.”

DoorBully’s triumph

Once DoorBully gained recognition as an outstanding invention at the state level, Kumar and Susskind traveled to the Henry Ford Museum to compete with hundreds of other students.

“Being at the state and national competitions felt great,” said Kumar and Susskind. “It was cool to represent our school and community and to be around other students who cared about making a difference. Seeing how my peers tackled big issues with new ideas was eye-opening. The whole experience felt like we were all on the same team, trying to do something good for the world.”

Nonetheless, the boys did much more than enjoy new experiences throughout the different conventions they attended.

During the national convention, the students won a third place within their age category. Additionally, they also won the Patent Application Award sponsored by WilliamHale Law Firm, helping to guide them to obtain a full patent and paying for the application with a cost of around $20,000. 

Moving forward 

Now, the students are transitioning from the prototype of DoorBully to a product that they can bring to the market. This is made possible through the Patent Application Award which is crucial in allowing Kumar and Susskind to move forward with their product as young inventors. Further, the two students have worked to implicate DoorBully in schools around Georgia in hopes of widening DoorBully’s reach and impact. 

“Encouraged by their parents, teachers and supporters, William and Rohan have reached out to schools and school districts in Georgia and have already begun to get lots of interest in their product,” said Mobley. 

The students’ story is an uplifting one, proving that when young minds put in impassioned work towards something, they can often achieve it. With that, Kumar and Susskind left a piece of parting advice for anyone who feels inspired to start problem-solving and inventing.

“I would tell anyone aspiring to invent or create not to be afraid of failure. It’s a natural part of the process and often a steppingstone to success,” said Kumar and Susskind. “Through our own journey with DoorBully, we experienced numerous setbacks.

“However, each failure was a learning opportunity that contributed to our growth and progress. Embrace failure as a teacher and use it to refine your ideas and strategies.”

Contact Kumar and Susskind about DoorBully at quicksecurellc@gmail.com. Learn more about ICW at inhub.thehenryford.org/icw.