Lemelson-MIT Program

Based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Lemelson-MIT Program, established in 1994, is dedicated to honoring the acclaimed and unsung heroes who have helped improve our lives through invention. The program's prestigious awards include the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, and it inspires and encourages young inventors through outreach efforts such as Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams, a non-competitive, team-based national grants initiative for high school students.

The Lemelson-MIT Awards

The annual National Lemelson-MIT Awards consists of the prestigious half-million dollar Lemelson-MIT Prize, as well as the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability. Recipients of the Awards represent a wide range of inventing accomplishments in the medicine and health care, computing, technology, environmental, engineering, industrial and consumer products fields.

The $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize recognizes individuals who turn their ideas into inventions and innovations that change the world and improve lives. The prize is bestowed upon outstanding mid-career inventors, who have developed a patented product or process of significant value to society, which could be or has been adopted for practical use. The prize is designed to spur inventive careers and provide role models for future generations of inventors.

The $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability celebrates individuals whose inventions and innovations enhance economic opportunity and community well-being in developing and/or developed countries, while protecting and restoring the natural environment. The award serves to increase awareness of local or global sustainability issues and inventors working in these critical areas, and also supports continued inventive work of these individuals.

The Lemelson-MIT Student Prize is an annual $30,000 cash award presented 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 demonstrated remarkable inventiveness. Award winners gain invaluable exposure to the science, business and investment communities through national press around this award.

InvenTeam Grants, awarded anually by the Lemelson-MIT Program, provide a unique opportunity for high school students to gain hands-on experience in the exciting and rewarding world of invention. InvenTeams - students, their teacher, and an industry mentor - are formed for the purpose of inventing something of value for their schools or communities.

The InvenTeam Initiative is a logical evolution of the Lemelson-MIT Program's annual High School Invention Apprenticeship, which provided a hands-on learning experience to one inventive high school student for each of the past four years.

E-Teams at MIT

In an effort to inspire young people to invent and innovate at MIT, the Lemelson Foundation supports an array of undergraduate and graduate courses designed to provide hands-on, team-based experiences for innovative students. This is accomplished through the support of E-Teams, activities in which MIT students work with each other, faculty and business mentors, and local entrepreneurs on product development and new venture projects. At present, the MIT E-Teams are part of three innovative engineering/management courses offered by the MIT Sloan School of Management and the MIT School of Engineering: Product Engineering Processes (Course 2.009), Entrepreneurship Lab (Course 15.399) and Product Design and Development (Course 15.783j).