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

Previous

  • Inventing for Impact

    Inventing for Impact

    Why a Diverse Invention Ecosystem Is Crucial for Solving the World’s Biggest Problems Today is Edison’s birthday, which President Reagan designated “National Inventors’ Day.” Indeed, inventors have been recognized as essential to our country’s success since the days of our Founders, when George Washington urged the first Congress to set up the patent system. In…

  • Growing Global Invention Ecosystems to Solve Our Sustainable Development Challenges

    Growing Global Invention Ecosystems to Solve Our Sustainable Development Challenges

    Why Entrepreneur Ecosystems Are Not “One Size Fits All” For Global Entrepreneurship Week, millions of people across 170 countries participated in thousands of online events and in-person gatherings to discuss the state-of-the-state of global entrepreneurship, as well as what’s needed to grow entrepreneurial opportunity in the years ahead. One of the key themes for this…

  • A Teen Inventor’s Experience With Hurricane Sandy Spurs Innovation

    A Teen Inventor’s Experience With Hurricane Sandy Spurs Innovation

    That event spurred her to think about other communities vulnerable to natural disasters. Helen Lyons was inspired to invent by a problem she encountered close to home. When she was in fourth grade living in New York City, her neighborhood was devastated by Hurricane Sandy. “The streets turned into rivers, and I remember watching the…

  • Inspiring Students to Invent Can Transform Lives

    Inspiring Students to Invent Can Transform Lives

    A Teacher Motivates Her Student to become a Science Educator When teachers present their students with real-world challenges to solve, they show them that they have the power to improve lives in their community and beyond. For National Teacher Appreciation Week, we’re celebrating teachers who are inspiring their students through invention education. Clara Mabour was…

  • Inventions That Matter

    Inventions That Matter

    Or “The Case Against Nonsense” For more than 20 years The Lemelson Foundation has been committed to the power of invention to improve lives. While inventions come in many forms, the Foundation’s work is focused on those that help solve the world’s most complex and systemic problems with true and lasting impact. We call this 

  • Immigrant Entrepreneurs Shape America’s Inventive and Economic Future

    Immigrant Entrepreneurs Shape America’s Inventive and Economic Future

    On August 21 The Lemelson Foundation joined thousands of organizations in recognizing World Entrepreneurs’ Day, an event designed to raise awareness of the importance of entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership in our lives. And from November 13–19, we will join 20,000 groups across 170 nations celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week. But this year’s celebrationsMore

  • Inspiring Students to Invent Can Transform Lives

    Inspiring Students to Invent Can Transform Lives

    A Teacher Motivates Her Student to become a Science Educator When teachers present their students with real-world challenges to solve, they show them that they have the power to improve lives in their community and beyond. For National Teacher Appreciation Week, we’re celebrating teachers who are inspiring their students through invention education. Clara Mabour was…

  • Resource Constraints Demand Smarter Approaches to Invention

    Resource Constraints Demand Smarter Approaches to Invention

    The best inventions will be those that deliver the most value while consuming the fewest resources. April 22 saw hundreds of thousands assemble in Washington, DC and dozens of other cities nationwide to celebrate Earth Day with a first-ever March for Science. One week later, Americans again took to the streets to mark President Trump’s 100thMore

  • A Conversation With MIT Media Lab’s Ramesh Raskar

    A Conversation With MIT Media Lab’s Ramesh Raskar

    The professor discusses his early influences, approach to technology, and solving the right problem at the right time. In September 2016, Dr. Ramesh Raskar, an associate professor at the MIT Media Lab and holder of more than 75 patents, was awarded the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize for his work in developing radical imaging solutions. The WallMore