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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  • How One High School Teacher and an Invention Project Made All the Difference

    How One High School Teacher and an Invention Project Made All the Difference

    Ford Grundberg and his former teacher Doug Scott Now a satellite orbital analyst, Ford Grundberg used to intentionally blow off his schoolwork. Then an invention education experience changed his life. Ford Grundberg was a sophomore in high school in Natick, Massachusetts, when he met Doug Scott. It was during a study hall, and Mr. Scott…

  • Pushing for an Engineering Revolution

    Pushing for an Engineering Revolution

    On April 22, 1970, millions of Americans took to the country’s streets, parks, college campuses and classrooms to demand action for a healthier planet. This was the first Earth Day, and it sparked the modern environmental movement. Today, sustainability has become a key touchstone and point of concern across all sectors, from government to industry…

  • These Inventor Entrepreneurs Are Solving Global Health Challenges

    These Inventor Entrepreneurs Are Solving Global Health Challenges

    From better neonatal care to affordable and accessible diagnostics, invention-based businesses are addressing health disparities and spurring economic growth. Whether COVID-19 or pneumonia, blindness or jaundice, many health conditions can be improved or even prevented when people have access to the right care. But according to the United Nations, less than half of the global…

  • Meet the Woman Who Forged an Entirely New Scientific Field

    Meet the Woman Who Forged an Entirely New Scientific Field

    Chemical biologist Carolyn Bertozzi is blazing a trail in the way cancer and other diseases may be diagnosed and treated.

  • 2021 Women’s History Month: Three Women Who Are Blazing a Trail in Medicine

    2021 Women’s History Month: Three Women Who Are Blazing a Trail in Medicine

    To celebrate Women’s History Month, we’re spotlighting the groundbreaking accomplishments of three women whose work is helping advance human health care. The good news: The number of women inventors is increasing. The not-as-good news: Only about 17% of inventors worldwide are women, according to a report published by World Intellectual Property Indicators. In the United…

  • From Nature to New Materials: This MIT Professor’s Inventions Are Rooted in Biology

    From Nature to New Materials: This MIT Professor’s Inventions Are Rooted in Biology

    An abalone shell inspired Angela Belcher to pursue a career in engineering and cancer research. The notion that nature is full of inspiration is at the heart of Angela Belcher’s work — and it’s what set her own career in motion. A prizewinning inventor, including the 2013 Lemelson-MIT Prize, and MIT’s James Mason Crafts Professor ofMore

  • Microtechnology, Medicine and Mentoring: One Inventor’s Formula for Success

    Microtechnology, Medicine and Mentoring: One Inventor’s Formula for Success

    Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia is a leader in advancing human health care — and a role model for other women interested in STEM. Born near Boston, Massachusetts, to parents who immigrated to the United States from India, Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia is an MIT professor, a physician, a bioengineer, an entrepreneur and a patent-holding inventor. She is…

  • Cultivating Curiosity

    Cultivating Curiosity

    Arlyne Simon doesn’t want to be a statistic. She is a biomedical engineer, patent-holding inventor, author, and entrepreneur. Today, that puts her among a very small number of women — especially women of color — but Simon is on a mission to change that. “I really think inventing is magical. I mean, you identify a…

  • If We Want to Build Back Better, We Need a New Focus on Invention and Innovation

    If We Want to Build Back Better, We Need a New Focus on Invention and Innovation

    A road map to economic resilience and more inclusive prosperity The U.S. is at an economic crossroads, hastened by the effects of the pandemic. As we look for the best ways to revitalize our economy, we are appropriately focused on urgent, short-term needs, like getting people back to work and supporting small businesses such as…