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  • Envisioning a Safer Eye Exam

    Envisioning a Safer Eye Exam

    This young inventor created a synthetic model eye to help medical students train for optical procedures. With more than two million working parts, the eye is considered the second most complex human organ after the brain. So how can medical students train for treating such a complicated and sensitive part of the body? That’s the…

  • Empowering Underrepresented Students to Become Entrepreneurs

    Empowering Underrepresented Students to Become Entrepreneurs

    Dr. Sylvia Robles founded the “Adopt a Startup” program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley to encourage entrepreneurship in students and foster sustainability in local businesses. Through her groundbreaking Adopt a Startup program, Dr. Sylvia Robles is inspiring — and incubating — the next generation of sustainability-focused entrepreneurs. How do you support youth…

  • Engineering for One Planet Initiative Partners With ECL-USA for a Virtual Engineering Education Summit

    Engineering for One Planet Initiative Partners With ECL-USA for a Virtual Engineering Education Summit

    The Foundation’s Engineering for One Planet (EOP) Initiative partnered with ECL-USA to present a virtual summit on March 14th, 2023. Sponsored by NCEES and in collaboration with ABET and Olin College of Engineering, the summit, Scanning the Horizon of Engineering Education: The Sustainability Imperative, explored the importance of integrating sustainability into engineering education. MembersMore

  • Smashing Ceilings and Building Solutions: 14 Trailblazing Women Inventors

    Smashing Ceilings and Building Solutions: 14 Trailblazing Women Inventors

    In celebration of Women’s History Month, we’re spotlighting women whose ideas and inventions are aimed at improving lives and solving global problems. “I was always trying to figure out the magic that made things tick.” That’s how Jeanelle Dao, an eighth grader from San Jose, California, describes her earliest childhood inclinations toward invention. Last year,…

  • Why Invention Education Will Lead to a Future Full of Innovators

    Why Invention Education Will Lead to a Future Full of Innovators

    A hands-on, inclusive approach to learning, Invention Education gives students agency and the confidence they need to become problem-solvers. Picture a classroom full of students engaged in their learning. But they don’t have books or computers in front of them. Instead, they have cardboard boxes, rubber bands, and duct tape — or maybe circuit boards…

  • InventEd is Going to SXSW EDU!

    InventEd is Going to SXSW EDU!

    SXSW EDU is a reflection of the world’s most critical social issues as seen through the lens of education. The Lemelson Foundation and the InventEd Network are proud to sponsor a panel on Invention Education as part of SXSW EDU’s 2023 program. Panelists Dr. Kristin Moon of Portland Public Schools in Oregon, Juan Valentin of…

  • Tackling 21st Century Challenges through Invention

    Tackling 21st Century Challenges through Invention

    Each February, National Inventors’ Day is an opportunity to honor and celebrate the contributions inventors make to our world. At The Lemelson Foundation, we believe that inventions from diverse people and places are critical to solving not only today’s problems but also those of the future.

  • 2023 Inventor’s Day Roundup: Inventing for a Better Future

    2023 Inventor’s Day Roundup: Inventing for a Better Future

    These innovators are changing the face of invention — and working to change the world. A hundred years ago this year, Jerry Lemelson was born into a world that was being transformed by the power of invention. He himself became a prolific and versatile inventor, with more than 600 patents across a wide range of…

  • These Teens Plan To Change The World Through Invention

    These Teens Plan To Change The World Through Invention

    For Jeanelle Dao and Prisha Shroff, personal experience plus a commitment to improving lives equals a steady drive to make the world a better place. At age 13, Prisha Shroff saw something that made her want to change the world. She was driving with her family from Los Angeles to their home in Chandler, Arizona,…

  • Seeking Program Officer for Invention Education Team

    Seeking Program Officer for Invention Education Team

    The Lemelson Foundation (the Foundation) seeks a Program Officer (PO) to join the Invention Education team, which supports efforts to equip primary, secondary, and college students with the invention and problem-solving skills and mindsets needed to build and thrive in an innovation economy. The PO will work with the team’s Senior Program Officer (SPO) to…

  • Fighting Wildfires Through Invention

    Fighting Wildfires Through Invention

    A close encounter with a California wildfire inspired 16-year old Prisha Shroff to design a system to mitigate devastating blazes in the future. When she was 13 years old, Prisha Shroff saw something that made her want to change the world. She was in the car with her family, driving from Los Angeles to their…

  • This Invention Helps Open the Door to Accessibility

    This Invention Helps Open the Door to Accessibility

    A pattern-sensing doormat was inspired by eighth grader Jeanelle Dao’s family history with hand disability. An eighth grader at Stratford San Jose Middle School in California, Jeanelle Dao is unlocking a solution to a problem that she learned about through her grandfather. He had arthritis in his hands, which made opening doors with a key…

  • Request for Proposals: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice Consultant for Oregon’s Regional Innovation Hubs

    Request for Proposals: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice Consultant for Oregon’s Regional Innovation Hubs

    Overview Business Oregon and the Lemelson Foundation have partnered, along with a seven-person Advisory Committee, to hire a consultant (funded by the Lemelson Foundation) to provide diversity, equity, inclusion and justice (DEIJ) consultancy services to support Oregon’s Regional Innovation Hub (Hubs), described below. The consultancy will have three phases and last about 16 months. The…