Three local students are among the 100 semi-finalists of the 2016 Invention Convention — the Capital Region’s annual student invention competition, hosted this year by miSci:

— Celia Lounsbury, a student at Berne-Knox-Westerlo Central School District, with an invention named Cool Catch;

— Gavin Melchior, from Westmere Elementary School in the Guilderland School District, with Super Stuffed Animal Cape and Bag Combo; and

— Emily Tymchyn, from Berne-Knox-Westerlo, with Bit Saddle,.

The inventions were chosen from 1,368 student submissions from 30 schools across the Capital Region. A reception was held at miSci on May 19 to celebrate the semi-finalists.

Students are invited to submit a proposal of an original idea for a device or a method for solving a problem that can occur in the environment, in technology or industry, in the classroom, home or during leisure time activities. A volunteer team of General Electric scientists and patent lawyers, along with other professionals from the community evaluated the submissions and chose the top 100 entries and the 25 finalists.