Latest

Mahadevan poses with The Allergent, a food allergy detection device.

The Food Allergy Detective

This young inventor created an AI-enabled, electronic nose to sniff out allergens lurking in your food.

7 min read

Inventing Our Future: A National Inventors’ Day Celebration

A message from Rob Schneider, Executive Director, The Lemelson Foundation

5 min read

Envisioning a Safer Eye Exam

This young inventor created a synthetic model eye to help medical students train for optical procedures.

4 min read

A Champion for Sustainability

Transforming Engineering Curricula to Protect Our Planet

7 min read

Making STEM Education More Inclusive for Emerging Entrepreneurs

Five attributes that innovation and entrepreneurship programs should cultivate

6 min read

Escaping the Ordinary in the Classroom

Grant Kightlinger and Molly Grace, co-creators of the “FairPlay Challenge.” This innovative education curriculum uses an escape room model to engage students in important life lessons. Many of us have had that experience in school of feeling trapped in a boring lesson about a topic that didn’t seem to have any relevance to our lives. But as you watchedMore

9 min read

Making Engineering Elementary

How a model for equity-oriented engineering curriculum is engaging students from all backgrounds and in the earliest grades Students engineering windmills that harness the wind’s energy. (Credit: Youth Engineering Solutions, Museum of Science, Boston) Engineers are crucial to building our future. And to harness the best solutions for tomorrow’s social and environmental challenges, we need aMore

11 min read

Transforming the Game with Invention

Shawn Springs, CEO of Windpact. This former athlete turned entrepreneur and inventor is creating new sports technology to improve player safety. Who can be an inventor? A dynamic new exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation is posing that question through a unique lens, andMore

9 min read

Recharging the Electric Vehicle Industry

Siblings Steven (left) and Zora Chung (right) co-founded technology company ReJoule. This sustainable startup is building a circular economy for EV batteries from the ground up How do you make a critically important sustainable industry even more sustainable? For electric vehicles, one of the challenges is the sustainable source itself — the lithium-ion battery. Although they areMore

11 min read

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  • The Surge in Climate Action Requires a Surge in Green Talent, but How on Earth to Fill the Gap?

    The Surge in Climate Action Requires a Surge in Green Talent, but How on Earth to Fill the Gap?

    Creating a new generation of engineers skilled in sustainability is an investment in the health of people and the planet

  • From Plastic Surgeon-in-Training to Inventor: How a Family Tragedy Led One Latina to Improve Lung Disease Diagnosis for the World

    From Plastic Surgeon-in-Training to Inventor: How a Family Tragedy Led One Latina to Improve Lung Disease Diagnosis for the World

    Maria Artunduaga, CEO & Founder of Samay. Maria Artunduaga is the CEO and founder of Samay (formerly Respira Labs), a successful startup aimed at providing low-cost, at-home diagnostics for dangerous respiratory conditions. At age 34, Maria Artunduaga took a leap of faith. Ambitious and focused, she was studying plastic surgery — a highly competitive specialty…

  • Seven Lessons from a First-time Inventor-Entrepreneur

    Seven Lessons from a First-time Inventor-Entrepreneur

    Tricia Compas-Markman’s journey from engineering to founding a startup for safe drinking water brings valuable takeaways for innovators. I believe that invention can help solve some of our most pressing challenges and improve living conditions for communities across the globe. In particular, disaster relief is an area where innovation can save lives, especially as climate…

  • Engineering for Impact

    Engineering for Impact

    Five Invention-Based Businesses Addressing Development Challenges with Hardware-Led Solutions From COVID to climate change, the world has recently witnessed mounting global challenges that have hindered progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In particular, this year’s report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference have shownMore

  • Unlocking the Potential of Hardware-Based Invention to Solve Global Development Challenges

    Unlocking the Potential of Hardware-Based Invention to Solve Global Development Challenges

    A leader in social enterprise provides advice on how to create a supportive ecosystem of mentorship and funding for game-changing innovation As the international development community looks at the decade ahead, unlocking innovation across the globe will be crucial to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), from health to agriculture to the environment. The pandemic…

  • Envisioning the Future of Education

    Envisioning the Future of Education

    Dr. Yong Zhao offers steps to help create a more diverse and inventive education system. Imagine an education system in which every child — regardless of race, gender, ability, or economic status — could realize their full, unique potential and become part of the innovation workforce. Instead of gauging success through standardized tests and benchmark…

  • World Food Day: The Future of Agriculture and Farmer Livelihoods Depends on Local and Innovation-Driven Enterprises

    World Food Day: The Future of Agriculture and Farmer Livelihoods Depends on Local and Innovation-Driven Enterprises

    On this year’s World Food Day, the COVID crisis continues to have a significant impact on the agriculture sector and food supply chains around the world. Nowhere is the crisis more acute than in low-income countries where the pandemic has had “profound implications for the food security, nutrition and food systems,” according to a report released lastMore

  • Fostering a more resilient and equitable innovation economy requires the cultivation of home-grown talent

    Fostering a more resilient and equitable innovation economy requires the cultivation of home-grown talent

    Oregon is preparing the next generation of inventors and entrepreneurs to change their communities — and the world. As the U.S. emerges this summer from the grip of the pandemic, much of the country is fully reopening for business almost as rapidly as it closed. Oregon is now reopening as well — stores and restaurants…

  • Building Back for a Healthy Planet

    Building Back for a Healthy Planet

    Engineers are crucial to restoring our ecosystems and building a sustainable future.