Young inventor thinks outside the cereal box - WFLA-TV News Channel 8

At the bottom of every cereal box are the leftover crumbs. "Disgusting stuff that ruins your bowl," said 12-year-old Michalina Jadick. She wanted to fix that problem, so she invented the Cereal Sifter.  She took two plastic cereal containers and cut them in half. She connected the two top halves and created a sifter by drilling holes in the extra plastic.

With each pour, the Cereal Sifter traps the crumbs at the bottom. "Makes the last bowl just as good as the first," said Jadick.

Jadick is one of ten finalists competing in Monday night's Young Innovators Competition at the USF Patel Center. 600 inventions from seven Bay Area counties were submitted and whittled down to the ten that will present their inventions to a panel of judges.

This is the fifth year of the competition. "It was an idea my daughter actually brought to me," said Anton Hopen, a patent attorney and chairman of the Young Innovators Competition.

Each year the competition has gotten larger. This year a new element was added, a patent search. "They had to go to Google Patents or the U.S. Patent Office to try and find the three closest patents," said Hopen.

The showcase of the top ten inventions will take place at the USF Patel Center, on the Tampa campus, at 5:00 pm. At 6:00 pm the finalist will present their inventions. All prizes will be awarded that night.