Hamden 5th Grader Wins National Invention Convention Awards

HAMDEN, CT — An 11-year-old Hamden girl has used her personal experiences with battling a rare autoimmune disorder to develop an award-winning invention. Maya DiMauro, a fifth-grade student at Bear Path, recently won several awards at the National Invention Convention for her product, survIVe.

Maya took home three awards at the virtual event — the Cantor Colburn Patent Application Award, the Global Impact Award for Market Potential, and third place in her grade category for survIVe.

Maya went temporarily blind last year due to the autoimmune disorder, called MOG-Ab, which manifested in her optic nerve, according to NBC Connecticut. After undergoing treatments over the past year that required long hours hooked to an IV, Maya invented surviVe to make the process more comfortable.

"My invention makes the experience of receiving IV treatments more comfortable and less scary for pediatric patients," she said. “It is a soft pillow sized to a patient's arm using three adjustable straps. It houses a traditional arm board located in a pocket under the pillow and includes a detachable stuffed animal for distraction and comfort."

Margaret DiMauro, Maya’s mother, credited Hamden teachers Lisa Kingston and Shelby Irwin for their role in bringing the Invention Convention to the students.

Around 250 employee volunteers from Raytheon Technologies served as judges at the U.S. nationals round of the Invention Convention. The competition was sponsored by Raytheon Technologies.

Maya was one of the few inventors featured on the Raytheon Technologies website.

“SurvIVe has the potential to help so many pediatric and adult patients,” she said in the article, calling it “a little piece of comfort that can help patients through a very scary time in their lives.”

Learn more about Maya’s invention from the video below: