February 5, 2010 –  As noted on the RAMP partner Villgro's blog, Anand Krishnaswamy, The Lemelson Foundation's consultant in India, wrote an interesting article about in innovative group in India that has created the 'Milk Tree' – a vending machine for milk for installation in apartment complexes and housing colonies in India.

February 3, 2010 – Last Thursday the latest AshokaTECH podcast was released, featuring a timely interview with Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow Elizabeth Hausler, founder of Build Change. Hausler is an expert on sustainable building practices to prevent earthquake damage.

Dec. 16, 2009 – Last week, Villgro featured it's first "Unconvention" in Chennai, India which featured a opportunity for rural innovators to meet, share their innovations, and recognize accomplishments. Activities for the 4-in-1 convention included: An Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship conference, a business plan competition for social entreprenuers, a fair where innovations can be showcased, and an awards ceremony to honor outstanding innovators.

Dec. 8, 2009 – Solar lamps designed and distributed by former NCIIA E-team Greenlight Planet are lighting up the lives of people in rural India, as reported yesterday in The Wall Street Journal. Greenlight Planet was started as a E-Team by students at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to develop a solar-charged, battery powered LED lantern for use in India and China.

Nov. 30, 2009 – RAMP India innovator K. Vivekanandan was featured last week in The Hindu, the national newspaper of India. Vivekanandan's innovation is a modified pin pulverizer for grinding spices in rural villages. The technology eliminates the need for villagers to travel long distances to find similar machines, which require too much energy and are too expensive for use in rural areas.

Nov. 16, 2009 – Three current Lemelson-MIT prize winners and one former winner are among the seven award-winning innovations highlighted last week by msnbc.

Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 21, 2009 - The Lemelson-MIT Program yesterday announced 15 teams of high school students, teachers and mentors selected to participate in the 2009-2010 InvenTeam initiative. The teams will pursue year-long invention projects and be provided with hands-on access to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.

Oct. 12, 2009 – A few weeks ago, The Lemelson Foundation executive director Julia Novy-Hildesley attended the annual Clinton Global Initiative, presenting a report on the Foundation's 2007 commitment as well as participating on a panel about energy and climate changes. She also served as a facilitator of an innovation break-out session.

For the update on The Lemelson Foundation's 2007 commitment to CGI, Novy-Hildesley described the Foundation's $2.3 million in new grants and loans in testing for non-profit and for profit renewable energy distribution models that deliver services for those living on less than $2 a day. This consisted of a portfolio of projects that the Foundation funded not only to achieve impact for those living in poverty, but also to use the commitment itself as a portfolio approach for learning about models for how to reach the most marginalized in our world with clean energy services and technologies.

 

Oct. 5 (Portland, OR) - The Micro-Inventors Program of Oregon (MIPO) is offering local inventors a three-hour workshop this Saturday, Oct. 10, on turning back-of-the-napkin ideas to marketable products.

The workshop, which costs $50 for MIPO members and $75 for non-members, features Louis J. Foreman, publisher of Inventor's Digest and executive producer of the PBS Emmy award-winning Everyday Edisons. He'll be discussing the difference between good ideas and marketable ones, as well as licensing "land minds," things not to tell potential investors and how to protect your invention once it's on the market.

New York (Sept. 23) - Julia Novy-Hildesley, executive director of the Lemelson Foundation, will be the discussion facilitator for one of the Innovation break-out sessions at today's Clinton Global Initiative.

The session, entitled Becoming Embedded: Co-Creating Business with the Community will talk about how smart companies are trying to rethink global strategies and one-size-fits-all solutions, discussing the challenges and opportunities for businesses seeking to become more locally embedded.