Achieving the unexpected

CAPS students take first place at the Kansas City Invention Convention. 

Elizabeth Caine, Print Chief Writer|May 27, 2022

Seniors Tyler Lively and Jackson Brueckner present their design at the 2022 Kansas City Invention Convention. (Photo courtesy of Tyler Lively)

Seniors Tyler Lively and Jackson Brueckner present their design at the 2022 Kansas City Invention Convention. (Photo courtesy of Tyler Lively)

Seniors Jackson Brueckner and Tyler Lively recently won the Best of Show and Honeywell awards at the 2022 Kansas City Invention Convention. Brueckner said he and Lively won for having the best invention idea and presentation at the convention. As a reward, they each won $1800 as well as the ability to move on to Nationals. 

Brueckner and Lively created their invention and presentation as a part of the Innovation Entrepreneurship class at CAPS. Their project for the semester was to create a physical invention, in addition to a presentation and business plan to go with that invention. Lively said they worked on the invention for two and a half hours every school day.

For their invention, Lively said they wanted to make a car dealership into a VR app which would allow people to scan real cars and then enter it into the app. 

Originally, Brueckner said he and Lively were not planning to participate in the convention because they did not think they had a shot at winning. However, Lively said they ended up enrolling in the competition anyway as they were encouraged to enroll in all the competitions they could for their class.  

“We kind of ended up enrolling just because we thought we were supposed to, with like, not really any hope of winning,” Lively said. 

When he found out they won, Brueckner said he was really excited and was surprised to find that they would not have to split the cash prize. 

For their invention, Lively and Brueckner used virtual reality to model their own car dealership app. (Photo courtesy of Tyler Lively)

“When they told us just how much we won and that we wouldn’t have to split it, we both kind of just looked at each other and our jaws dropped,” Brueckner said.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship teacher Mike Farmer said he was very excited for Lively and Brueckner when he found out they won the awards as he thought the recognition was well deserved. Despite this, Farmer said he was surprised to a certain extent due to the virtual reality aspect of their invention. 

“It’s so leading edge in particular that they’re [Lively and Brueckner] working in the metaverse [virtual reality]. I have a concern sometimes that perhaps the community of evaluators don’t fully grasp the potential for technology like this,” Farmer said. 

Since they won the local competition, Brueckner said they received a bid to go to compete at the national competition, which will take place on June 1 at Michigan’s Henry Ford theater.

To individuals that are interested in achieving similar success as him and Lively, Brueckner said, do not count yourself out.   

“Don’t just think like, ‘Oh, I’m probably not going to win this because we were thinking the same thing,’” Brueckner said.