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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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  • Invention Roundup: Food Systems

    Invention Roundup: Food Systems

    Three Invention-Based Companies Whose Ideas Could Lead to a Healthier Future In honor of World Food Day, we’re spotlighting inventors whose work is rooted in rethinking food systems to benefit people and the planet. Across the world, hunger is the leading cause of death. Unequal access to food and inefficient supply chains leave millions of…

  • From Medical Student to Tech Entrepreneur

    From Medical Student to Tech Entrepreneur

    How One Inventor is Transforming Health Care in Rural India Through his startup company, Biosense, Abhishek Sen is helping remote communities in India get better testing for some of the country’s most pervasive diseases. How do you solve a chronic, widespread generational health problem in places where money and resources are scarce? That question led…

  • How Building Skateboards Inspired One Young Woman to Become an Engineer, Physicist — and Prizewinning Inventor

    How Building Skateboards Inspired One Young Woman to Become an Engineer, Physicist — and Prizewinning Inventor

    From a family of Vietnamese refugees and the only girl in her college physics program, Kayla Nguyen has overcome her share of obstacles. Now she’s working to encourage other women and girls interested in science. What do skateboards, surfing, and the astronaut Sally Ride have in common? For postdoctoral researcher Kayla Nguyen, they all played…

  • Invention for All

    Invention for All

    Lessons on How to Build a More Inclusive Ecosystem Note: All photos were taken before COVID-19 social distancing was put into effect. We are living in unprecedented times. Challenges are stacking up around us, from new emergencies like COVID-19 to existing issues like climate change. We are already seeing dramatic repercussions for our economy, our…

  • A New Model for Health Innovation in East Africa

    A New Model for Health Innovation in East Africa

    How our social enterprise providing life-saving medical oxygen responded to the pandemic, and showed the market opportunity for other inventors and entrepreneurs UPDATE: Since this article’s publication, Hewatele was awarded the inaugural Rotman Innovation of the Year Award by Grand Challenges Canada as one of its supported initiatives with the largest sustainable increase in lives saved orMore

  • Accessing Capital During a Pandemic: Resources for Early-Stage Entrepreneurs

    Accessing Capital During a Pandemic: Resources for Early-Stage Entrepreneurs

    Key Tips and Insights into Funding Sources during COVID-19 Note: An earlier version of this article was originally published on VentureWell’s Inside Impact blog. In the best of times, securing funding for a venture as a student entrepreneur can be tricky work. As the startup industry braces for the impacts of the COVID-19More

  • Invention Roundup: The Next Stage of COVID-19 Inventions

    Invention Roundup: The Next Stage of COVID-19 Inventions

    From Virus-Killing Robots to Improved Telemedicine Inventors continue to pivot and direct their ideas and energy to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Low-cost, rapid detection of the virus is still an important need. But in the absence of a vaccine, inventors are also looking for different ways to efficiently sanitize surfaces and kill the virus before…

  • Finding and Creating the Next Generation of Inventors

    Finding and Creating the Next Generation of Inventors

    Why the Future of Invention, STEM, and Our Children Depends on Advancing Equity Note: All photos were taken at Oregon MESA events before COVID-19 social distancing was put into effect. This has been a difficult year so far. If 2020 has shown us anything, it is that we as a society desperately need problem solvers.…

  • Why Every STEM Graduate Needs to Be Environmentally Focused

    Why Every STEM Graduate Needs to Be Environmentally Focused

    NOTE: To learn more on this topic, visit the Engineering for One Planet website. The United Nations Environment Program has crowned June 5th World Environment Day. And although the pandemic may have caused many news desks to push aside climate change headlines for the time being, we cannot afford to forget theMore