social innovation

The Foundation and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance were featured today in an article entitled, “The Lemelson Foundation: Tinkerers Saving the World,”on FastCompany.com. Written by Fast Company Expert Blogger Alice Korngold, the article explores how companies emerge from university environments and features information about three exciting NCIIA projects – OsmoPure, OneBreath and Solar Ivy…

Cambridge, Mass.,— Today, two Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams were among more than a dozen teams from around the country that presented their winning work at a White House Science Fair. The fair celebrates the winners of a broad range of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) competitions, including students from the Cesar Chavez High School InvenTeam in Laveen, Arizona and…

Portland, OR and New York, NY– The Lemelson Foundation this week announced three commitments during the Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York City, pledging a total of $4.5 million to Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers, the Nonprofit Enterprise and Self-sustainability Team (NESsT) and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA). The Lemelson Foundation, which…

Congratulations to our friends at D.light Design, who are having a fantastic run the last couple of weeks. On June 24, it was announced they had just closed a $5.5 million (USD) Series B financing round, led by the Omidyar Network. To follow that up, on July 1, D.light Design was awarded the prestigious Ashden Award for Sustainable…

Portland, OR– For the second year in a row, Oregon MESA’s (Mathematics, Engineering, Science, Achievement) teams placed near the top in the MESA National Engineering Design Competition. The middle school team from Ockley Green School placed second overall, and the high school team from Franklin High School placed third overall in the annual competition that…

New York, NY – Congratulations to the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) team from Johns Hopkins University for winning this year’s Biomedical Engineering Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship Award (BMEidea) Competition—a national competition celebrating student biomedical innovation. The BMEidea Competition, now in its sixth year, is open to collegiate teams from NCIIA member institutions from…

Congratulations to chemical biologist Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi, this year’s winner of the prestigious $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize. Bertozzi’s ability to identify unmet needs and craft innovative solutions has led to scientific advances with a broad range of applications in the biopharmaceutical industry. Chemical insights gleaned by Bertozzi have progressed efforts to diagnose and treat diseases such as…

This week Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation launchedLawForChange.org, a unique and innovative online legal resource designed for people and organizations in the social sector dedicated to improving lives and bringing about positive social change. LawForChange features state-specific information – designed for laypersons, not lawyers – from law firms throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico on key…

Congratulations to Dr. BP Agrawal, recipient of this year’s $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability. Dr. Agrawal’s creation of a community-driven rainwater harvesting system and mobile health clinics have the potential to improve the global public health system and better the quality of life for villagers in rural India. Dr. Agrawal was selected as the winner…

Congratulations to the winners of the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Collegiate Student Prizes! The four awarding universities – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – announced their respective student winners today, featuring innovation in a range of fields. This is exemplified by the so-called “Scientific…

Cambridge, Mass – The Lemelson-MIT program released today the findings of this year’s Invention Index, an annual survey that gauges American’s perceptions about invention and innovation. The 2010 Lemelson-MIT Invention Index survey was conducted by Kelton Research December 7-14, 2009, using an internet-based, multiple-choice format. A nationally representative sample of 500 teens, ages 12-17 years…