The $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize

2011 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize
winner Alice A. Chen. Credit: Lemelson-MIT

Sparking the Future of Invention by Celebrating a New Generation of Innovators

Today's young inventors are tomorrow's technological and entrepreneurial leaders. The $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize seeks to support a community of inventors at MIT and to recognize and inspire these burgeoning inventors and innovators.

The student prize is awarded annually to an MIT senior or graduate student who has created or improved a product or process, applied a technology in a new way, redesigned a system or in other ways displayed a portfolio of inventiveness. Award winners gain invaluable exposure to the science, business and investment communities through national press around this award.

The Lemelson-MIT Collegiate Student Prize Program currently funds two additional student prizes to recognize students who demonstrate remarkable inventiveness: $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Illinois Student Prize at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Learn more about eligibility requirements or nominate an inventor today at: http://web.mit.edu/invent/a-student.html

Recent award recipients:

Featured Prize Winner: Nate Ball Engineers an Inspired Ascent

When Nate Ball won the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize in 2007, he'd already invented two significant technologies, co-founded a company to develop and commercialize his creations, and applied for six patents. And he was only 23.

A gifted musician as well as an avid designer, Ball says, "Coming up with new and improved designs is a thrill like no other," especially when the product being prototyped and tested will have an impact on people all over the world. His ATLAS Powered Rope Ascender, first created as part of a student design competition at MIT, is as small as a toolbox—but with the power to save lives.

2007 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize winner Nate Ball developed his ATLAS Powered Rope Ascender
to help firefighters, soldiers and other rescue personnel reach the top of buildings in significantly less time.

Able to lift a 250-pound load more than 600 feet into the air, the invention allows firefighters, soldiers, and other rescue personnel to reach the top of 30-story buildings in only 30 seconds—a significant improvement over the six minutes it would take to climb stairs to the same height.

Ball has also worked on enhancing needle-free injection technology, designing and prototyping a device that will dramatically increase the efficiency of drug delivery. The technology is being tested in livestock, but Ball and his colleagues hope it will soon be used to deliver safe and inexpensive inoculations to people in developing countries.

Not many engineers are household names, especially with American teenagers. But as the co-host of the PBS series Design Squad (which is supported in part by the Lemelson Foundation), Ball has a national following, and a singular opportunity to encourage young people to explore invention, engineering, and design.

On each episode, teams of teens compete to create hands-on solutions to real world challenges, from building a radio-controlled aquatic robot to designing durable furniture made out of cardboard. Along the way, the teens model creativity and collaboration for young viewers, who can then use the Design Squad website to find resources and guidelines for taking on similar projects themselves. "To help other young inventors discover science is amazing," says Ball, "and watching their first moment of discovery is very rewarding."

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