North Idaho Students Win National Awards for Life-Saving Inventions

Wafricnews - July 1, 2025

Two North Idaho prodigies have turned their brilliant ideas into nationally acclaimed innovations, earning top honors at the prestigious 2025 RTX Invention Convention U.S. Nationals held at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan. These exceptional students aren’t just winning awards — they’re building hope for safer streets and fire-resilient homes.

Emily Laddy, a seventh grader at Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy, earned first place in the Working Models category for grades seven and eight with her creation, the “Walk Safe.” Far more than a simple sign, Walk Safe is a compact, adaptable safety tool engineered to empower pedestrians to cross streets securely at any hour. The invention’s reflective, flexible design ensures visibility, whether clipped to a backpack, stroller, bike, or even a person’s clothing. Emily’s innovation addresses a major gap in pedestrian safety — a realm where static signage often fails to protect vulnerable people at night. “Walk Safe can go anywhere, anytime, and it has been tested to help drivers notice pedestrians after dark,” Emily explained. In a world where over 7,000 pedestrians are killed annually on U.S. roads, her solution represents a powerful, scalable boost to street safety culture.

Meanwhile, fourth grader Hudson Carleton from North Idaho STEM Charter Academy earned first place for Non-Working Models in his grade category with the “Garage Blanket” — a concept poised to revolutionize fire safety. As electric vehicles and lithium-ion battery–powered devices fill homes and garages, so too does the danger of catastrophic battery fires. Hudson’s Garage Blanket is a smart, self-deploying thermal suppression system designed to automatically slow or even halt the deadly chain reactions of thermal runaway fires, while notifying firefighters of unseen battery hazards. Beyond its rapid-response design, Hudson’s idea addresses critical toxic runoff threats by limiting harmful chemicals released during battery-related fires. The concept could prove vital in garages, bike storage facilities, workshops, ships, apartment blocks, and more. With an estimated $457 million in annual property losses and hundreds of injuries attributed to these fires, Hudson’s blueprint offers the promise of safer living environments in a rapidly electrifying world.

These visionary young inventors joined 70 other student innovators from across the United States in a celebration of youth ingenuity at the awards ceremony on June 6. The event, hosted by Albert Lawrence of Innovation Nation, also featured an inspiring keynote from aerospace engineer, Blue Origin astronaut, and STEMBoard founder Aisha Bowe. Over 80 awards were presented, ranging from cash prizes and medals to patent application opportunities, highlighting the significance of cultivating tomorrow’s problem-solvers through platforms like the Invention Convention.

The convention’s mission is clear: equip young people with hands-on, project-based skills to turn problems into solutions. Before arriving on the national stage, students rigorously competed at local and regional levels, submitting video pitches, prototypes, detailed logbooks, and polished poster presentations that told the stories behind their creative processes.

As Emily and Hudson demonstrated, youth inventions are not just small school projects. They are seeds of potentially world-changing technologies — from street-crossing safety to revolutionary fire mitigation systems. And thanks to the Invention Convention, these seeds are already taking root.