 Hello everyone, it's Monica Wahee reporting back to you after attending Invent New England's Spring Inventor product pitch event. The event was held at the Haverill Innovation Hub, also known as the I Hub, at the University of Massachusetts Law. Actually, first, let me take a moment to talk about how cool the I Hub space is. Of course, the interior is pretty cool. They have a lot of offices you can rent. They also have a 3D printing lab you can use, and this is all set against a gorgeous view of the Merrimack River. The agenda for the event had many different activities on it, but I want to focus on the product pitches. There were ten pitches, almost all of them live, which were given to a friendly panel intended to coach the inventors. Not one of those mean, shark tank panels. Personally, I found that style much more comfortable and helpful from a learning standpoint. In this video, I'm going to highlight the products that I heard about from the pitches that inspired me. First, I'll start with Flicker Lighter. Flicker Lighter is a combination of a lighter and a fidget spinner, as you can see being demonstrated on the slide. Okay, I admit at first I thought this was the dumbest idea ever. But then, when the founder started talking about these as branded shwag for dispensaries, I was like, yes, for imprint, here they come. So I see a use case for this one. Let's keep it on the radar. Another one I liked, actually loved, was our YOLO, which is a totally natural yoga mat that you can wash and dry. And yes, it has a stabilizing side, so you don't slip around. The founder told us about giving it away in the Oscars gift bag this year, and that she can't keep the product in stock. So I'm probably just increasing her anxiety by promoting this, but hey, this is one of the greatest products I have seen in a long time. Then there was this grab bag of the other ones I saw. I'll quickly hit them all. We had an entrepreneur fresh out of the military pitching UV, a sunscreen that fluoresces under black light. The idea is you can use that feature to tell if you've missed a spot, or if the sunscreen has worn off in the water. We had J-pick, a J-shaped toothpick, so you can reach into all those hard to get crevices. I told the inventor that oral health people frown on toothpick use. But the reality is a lot of people swear by them, so why not innovate? We had a musician inventor who demonstrated a very elegant and attractive standing guitar case. He showed how with his case he can just set it on stage, open it, take his guitar out, and then continue to use the case as a stand during the performance. Oh, and the J-pick guy? He's a very prolific inventor. He also invented these plastic discs with little slits in them that you can set on a cake, or a quiche, or a pie, or any circular food, and then cut perfectly equal pieces in odd numbers, like five or seven. He said he did market research and about 50% of the people loved the idea, and about 50% were, eh, I don't care. He's an honest guy. There was this guy there with a spinning thing, and it was set up next to one of those square fans you use in the summer to cool a room, and I admit I didn't get it. Then he showed us this video of his invention mounted on a tree, so there are these four spinning billboards going around the tree with the wind, and it is absolutely the coolest thing you've ever seen. My colleague with me commented that she thought it was an art piece. It was really a neat looking contraption. We also had a very compelling pitch from a young inventor. I think he said he was eight years old and in third grade. He was trying to pitch using nanobots to drill through pathogens. He said he wanted to use white blood cells as the delivery mechanism. The panel really didn't know what to make of him. They asked how he learned all this, and he said, Google, which is probably true. I literally spend my life on Google Scholar. I'll link you to my Google Scholar video in the comments. So I asked him if he considered using these nanobots in conjunction with white blood cell transfusions. He said he'd never heard of a white blood cell transfusion, so I suggested he Google it. I'm not kidding. Expect something pretty great from this kid in the not so distant future. Finally, my last shout-out goes to the entrepreneur who figured out how to use moldable plastic, the kind for hockey mouthpieces, as a remoldable plastic underwire for bras. She had replaced all her underwires with these, and of course, I wanted to buy some. But she was looking more for a business to business rather than direct to consumer deal. But she definitely has something there. All right, so that wraps it up for my highlights from the product pitches at Invent New England Spring Inventor product pitch event. Many things are in order to President George Peters and Executive Director Lexa Gandolfo for their grand hospitality. If you like this innovation update, please like this video. And if you want to keep up to date with what's hot and new in data science, please subscribe to my channel. Thanks for watching and enjoy the rest of your day.