I've seen bits and pieces of shows like Shark Tank that profile inventors and their creations, but they're few and far between. Like anything, some of the ideas are pretty awesome, but a lot of the ideas are pretty horrendous. Somehow, this makes shows like American Idol hits - there are even entire episodes of the most awful entries - but not when it comes to shows that could lead to something useful. Today's public radio adventures included a segment about the intellectual booms in other countries, and the hosts discussed a show called Stars of Science that features inventors around the Middle East.
The show, which just finished its 5th season, is sponsored by the Qatar Foundation, a non-profit started by the royal family in 1995 to foster education, research, and community development to grow the "knowledge economy." Sixteen contestants go through the development process for their inventions, with a few people getting cut each show until the final four present their ideas to the panel, and the audience ranks the finalists. The top four ideas from last season were camel racing diagnostic boots, a mechanical Braille editor, a speech synthesizer for the language impaired, and a machine that provided automated scoring for when football (soccer) scoring gets fought over.
I think a show like this is a great idea because it provides a great opportunity for young innovators to develop and promote their ideas. Each episode goes through an important step in the process, like design, engineering, marketing, etc., and it gives a great outlet for sponsors for these great projects. (Plus it gets the guys on the shows to think twice about not speaking to the women out of fear of "disrespecting" anyone because the women have had great ideas too.)
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