Wild dreams at the Inventors Competition 2025

Wild dreams at the finals of the Inventors Competition 2025

Over the past year, hundreds of young creative minds submitted a colourful mix of designs online for the Inventors Competition 2025. At school, at The Discovery Factory in Eindhoven and at the Uitvindfabriek in Breda, they worked on their ideas to make life more fun, more sustainable, easier, nicer, healthier or better in some other way. On Friday 20 June, the finalists presented their inventions to the jury and the audience.

Things got competitive during the simultaneous finals in Eindhoven and Breda on 20 June. The finalists presented their inventions with lots of enthusiasm and energy (cheered on by their classmates). They were hardly thrown off by the questions from the jury members and the audience.

The expert juries in both cities judged the entries on originality, presentation and how well the models were put together. The impact of the ideas was also taken into account.

Dancing forward

In Eindhoven, Daantje, Elora and Laian from Merlebos proudly showed off the ‘DEL dance’, named after themselves: a vehicle that is powered sustainably by its user dancing on it. The dance moves activate wind turbines on the vehicle, which give it speed and direction.

With special dance steps to the song ‘Uptown Funk’, the three girls effortlessly got both their audience and the jury moving. “You score high on originality”, said the jury. “At most it is a bit reminiscent of the beer bike, but your invention is much more fun and healthier!”.

A load of crap

Daniël, Ben, Sil and Samme from Dirk Hezius primary school took over the baton (with plastic poos on their heads) with the presentation of their ‘Poop Scoop’. The little device on wheels cleans up poo on the street. Because, as the inventors put it, poo on the street is simply “a load of crap”. While it works, the small machine also takes CO2 out of the air, which is converted into energy that the Poop Scoop can run on.

According to the enthusiastic foursome, the Poop Scoop therefore solves not only a dirty problem, but also part of the climate problem. The two dog owners on the jury clearly liked the Poop Scoop and immediately said they would happily buy one together to share (“much better than walking around with one of those embarrassing poo bags”).

In the blink of an eye

The ‘Automatic Pencil Case’ by Jolie, Samara and Evi from De Fonkeling solves a familiar practical problem. The pencil case contains a smart robot hand that fetches that one red marker or pencil sharpener for you in the blink of an eye. The pencil case can also be easily attached to the side of a table or desk, and it can be fitted with solar panels so that it runs on solar power much of the time.

An invention that will certainly make teachers happy, the jury thinks, which the teacher who had travelled with them from Utrecht could confirm: “Sometimes it feels like I have to wait three whole minutes until everyone has the right pen”. The jury also saw room to expand the target group, outside the classroom too: “Like people who draw or paint a lot, but maybe it is also an invention for people with limited mobility”.

Wild dreams

The jury members admitted after their deliberation that they found it very hard to reach a decision. So they added an extra criterion to the judging factors mentioned earlier: “The dream factor”. And that settled it: the designers of the DEL dance came out on top as the winners in Eindhoven. Because these girls not only tackle a mobility problem in a cheerful way, “but also because they dared to dream the wildest. But once again, compliments to all of you, because you all showed us something fantastic”.

The winners and all their classmates each won two free tickets to The Discovery Factory. Afterwards, all participants could join various workshops and enjoy a bite to eat and a drink.

In Eindhoven, the jury consisted of Pascal van Hout of the competition’s main sponsor Brunel, Dorien Koterba of Haskoning and Hugo Vrijdag, co-founder of The Discovery Factory.

Breda final

In Breda, it was up to Renée van de Kamp (De Uitvindfabriek), Pieter Bax (Bax Hout) and Leonie van den Arend (IW) to make the tough decision.

The ideas presented at this Breda final were the Dementia Door (a smart door that makes sure people with dementia do not accidentally go outside), the Flying Medicine Bike (which automatically delivers medicines to people’s homes and collects them again, in busy areas but also in quiet ones), the eventual winner, the Don’t Smoke Fidget Box (to help people quit smoking in a light-hearted way) and the Make-Up Robot (which helps you put on your make-up faster or more easily).