August 3 – Showcasing how youth can make a difference in the world, the winners of the 2009 Invent Your World Challenge are already hard at work showing off their inventions.

Overall winner Javier Fernández-Han, 15, and his VERSATILE system has been featured in a variety of news articles, including Inhabitant.com and Instructables.com. The VERSATILE system is an algae-powered energy system combining a dozen new and existing technologies to treat waste, produce methane and bio-oil for fuel, produce food for humans and livestock, sequester greenhouse gases, and produce oxygen. Recently, Berkeley Lab reports on young Fernández-Han meeting with environmental energy scientist (and Lemelson Foundation Advisory Committee member) Ashok Gadgil and how 6 years ago Gadgil inspired Fernández-Han into inventing for those living in poverty.

Fernández-Han isn't the only Invent Your World Challenge winner getting recognition. Canadian Eden Full, 16, is wowing people with her ideas on dynamic photovoltaics, as evidenced by this video on YouTube, taken from her presentation at the Youth Venture Summit at MIT in late June.

For a great slideshow of all the Invent Your World Challenge winners, see:
http://www.slideshare.net/YouthVenture/invent-your-world-winners?type=presentation

About the Invent Your World Challenge

Invent Your World is a partnership between Ashoka GenV and the Lemelson Foundation to inspire and support a new generation of inventors in using technology to create positive social change.

Because today’s most critical challenges – such as climate change and sustainability – are global and complex, they require many creative and daring solutions, some of which may have to be new inventions. While inventions alone might not solve our problems we will not be able to address our most urgent needs without them.

In that spirit, Invent Your World asked young inventors what they could invent to make life easier, the planet greener, and the world better? The Invent Your World Challenge awarded support to 50 young inventors in using their inventions to create positive change – by providing mentorship, seed funding, networking opportunities, and even a $20,000 scholarship.