Impact Spotlights

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  • 2021 Women’s History Month: Three Women Who Are Blazing a Trail in Medicine

    2021 Women’s History Month: Three Women Who Are Blazing a Trail in Medicine

    To celebrate Women’s History Month, we’re spotlighting the groundbreaking accomplishments of three women whose work is helping advance human health care. The good news: The number of women inventors is increasing. The not-as-good news: Only about 17% of inventors worldwide are women, according to a report published by World Intellectual Property Indicators. In the United…

  • Invention Roundup: Three Inventors Who Are Designing a More Inclusive World

    Invention Roundup: Three Inventors Who Are Designing a More Inclusive World

    To commemorate International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we’re spotlighting inventors whose work is redefining what it means to be included and reshaping the world so it’s accessible to all. Millions of people live with some form of disability. According to the World Health Organization’s World Report on Disability, 15 percent of the global population…

  • Invention Roundup: Three Inventors Who Are Designing a More Inclusive World

    Invention Roundup: Three Inventors Who Are Designing a More Inclusive World

    To commemorate International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we’re spotlighting inventors whose work is redefining what it means to be included and reshaping the world so it’s accessible to all. Millions of people live with some form of disability. According to the World Health Organization’s World Report on Disability, 15 percent of the global population…

  • Meet the Software Engineer Designing with Inclusivity in Mind

    Meet the Software Engineer Designing with Inclusivity in Mind

    At the intersection of empathy and invention, Jason Grieves develops technology that bridges the digital divide for those with mobility or visual impairments.  If Jason Grieves could boil his invention philosophy down to one phrase it would be this: inclusive design. A software engineer who has worked at Apple, Microsoft and IBM, and the holder…

  • How Adversity Led to a Lifetime of Engineering and Invention

    How Adversity Led to a Lifetime of Engineering and Invention

    Dr. Rory A. Cooper is a veteran, an athlete and the holder of more than 20 groundbreaking patents in wheelchair and other assistive technology.

  • Julian Olschwang Wins the Broadcom MASTERS 2020 Lemelson Award for Invention

    Julian Olschwang Wins the Broadcom MASTERS 2020 Lemelson Award for Invention

    The fourteen-year-old’s innovation could potentially help people with hearing loss. At the 2020 Broadcom MASTERS® (Math, Applied Science, Technology, and Engineering for Rising Stars) competition, The Lemelson Foundation awarded the Lemelson Award for Invention to Julian Olschwang of Los Angeles, California. His project, called Talk to the Hand, is a low-cost sign language glove that…

  • Inventing for Equity: This Technology Makes Voting More Accessible

    Inventing for Equity: This Technology Makes Voting More Accessible

    Dr. Juan Gilbert created the Prime III software voting system as a model for how to make elections more secure — and more inclusive. Growing up in Hamilton, Ohio, Dr. Juan Gilbert’s path toward invention wasn’t laid out for him. “I didn’t have any role model or anything like that,” he says. What he did…

  • Solving the Food Supply Chain Through Chemistry

    Solving the Food Supply Chain Through Chemistry

    The New Frontier of Combating Food Waste Chemist Aidan Mouat has created a sustainable product that could save a quarter of a billion pounds of produce from going bad this year alone. Next time you pop a grape into your mouth, consider its path from the field to your palate. From harvest to packing to…

  • Invention Roundup: Food Systems

    Invention Roundup: Food Systems

    Three Invention-Based Companies Whose Ideas Could Lead to a Healthier Future In honor of World Food Day, we’re spotlighting inventors whose work is rooted in rethinking food systems to benefit people and the planet. Across the world, hunger is the leading cause of death. Unequal access to food and inefficient supply chains leave millions of…

  • How Building Skateboards Inspired One Young Woman to Become an Engineer, Physicist — and Prizewinning Inventor

    How Building Skateboards Inspired One Young Woman to Become an Engineer, Physicist — and Prizewinning Inventor

    From a family of Vietnamese refugees and the only girl in her college physics program, Kayla Nguyen has overcome her share of obstacles. Now she’s working to encourage other women and girls interested in science. What do skateboards, surfing, and the astronaut Sally Ride have in common? For postdoctoral researcher Kayla Nguyen, they all played…

  • Invention for All

    Invention for All

    Global challenges are stacking up around us, from new emergencies like COVID-19 to existing issues like climate change. We are already seeing dramatic repercussions for our economy, our lives and our livelihoods. In the latest article in Invention Notebook, Foundation Executive Director Carol Dahl examines the role that invention and inventors can play to help…

  • How To Keep Kids Inspired During Quarantine

    How To Keep Kids Inspired During Quarantine

    “STEM-thusiast” Nate Ball Recommends Shifting Gears and Thinking Like an Inventor As pandemic life persists, millions of parents are facing the same daily dilemma: How to keep kids engaged and inspired in a time when so much of the world is off limits. For inventor and father of two Nate Ball, the solution involves equal…