Impact Spotlights

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  • What Tomorrow’s Innovators Need Today

    What Tomorrow’s Innovators Need Today

    By Phil Weilerstein Phil Weilerstein is the President of VentureWell The global coronavirus crisis has served to underscore the vital role innovation now plays in our economic and social lives. In the face of this novel threat, we have come to assume and even expect rapid scientific solutions—new tests, vaccines, devices, treatments. It’s an expectation…

  • 5 Young Inventors Aim to Change the World

    5 Young Inventors Aim to Change the World

    Anyone can be an inventor. There are no restrictions on having a bright idea that can change the world. Note: This article was originally published in the Mechanical Engineering magazine at ASME. Click here to read more of ASME’s content. Hannah Herbst with President Barack Obama in front of her research for Beacon, a water energy-capturing device.…

  • Converting a Classic Car into a Zero-Carbon Ride

    Converting a Classic Car into a Zero-Carbon Ride

    This college student is tackling climate change by making eco-friendly cars more affordable.

  • During a Health Crisis, Look for the Inventors

    During a Health Crisis, Look for the Inventors

    It was a deadly pathogen that turned Jason Kang and his friends into inventors. But it’s not the one you’re thinking of. In 2014, Ebola was ravaging West Africa. Kang was a junior at Columbia University at the time. Like many other people, he wanted to help but felt there was little he could do.…

  • Invention Roundup: Inventors Rally in Response to a Health Crisis

    Invention Roundup: Inventors Rally in Response to a Health Crisis

    New products and devices address COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic is igniting a flurry of invention to address urgent issues of prevention and detection and treatment. From multiple efforts to address the need for ventilators to open-source face shields to drones that can detect potential respiratory infection, university researchers, engineers and private entrepreneurs have stepped…

  • Inventing a Better Insect Trap

    Inventing a Better Insect Trap

    How One Pennsylvania Teen Found Inspiration in Her Own Backyard How do you quash an insect invasion that threatens your favorite trees? For fourteen-year old Rachel Bergey of Harleysville, Pennsylvania, the answer involves inventing a new product out of garden netting and aluminum foil, and one key strategy: outsmarting the enemy. The spotted lanternfly is…

  • Going Beyond the Horizon

    Going Beyond the Horizon

    Jim West has been at the forefront of acoustic science for nearly six decades. From his childhood in the segregated South to his recent work on an advanced digital stethoscope, West has always looked for “what exists beyond the horizon.” This article was originally published on USPTO.gov on November 2019. Each month, their Journeys of Innovation…

  • A Teen Inventor’s Experience With Hurricane Sandy Spurs Innovation

    A Teen Inventor’s Experience With Hurricane Sandy Spurs Innovation

    That event spurred her to think about other communities vulnerable to natural disasters. Helen Lyons was inspired to invent by a problem she encountered close to home. When she was in fourth grade living in New York City, her neighborhood was devastated by Hurricane Sandy. “The streets turned into rivers, and I remember watching the…

  • A Conversation With MIT Media Lab’s Ramesh Raskar

    A Conversation With MIT Media Lab’s Ramesh Raskar

    The professor discusses his early influences, approach to technology, and solving the right problem at the right time. In September 2016, Dr. Ramesh Raskar, an associate professor at the MIT Media Lab and holder of more than 75 patents, was awarded the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize for his work in developing radical imaging solutions. The WallMore

  • Growing Global Invention Ecosystems to Solve Our Sustainable Development Challenges

    Growing Global Invention Ecosystems to Solve Our Sustainable Development Challenges

    By Maggie Flanagan, The Lemelson Foundation Program Officer For Global Entrepreneurship Week, millions of people across 170 countries participated in thousands of online events and in-person gatherings to discuss the state-of-the-state of global entrepreneurship, as well as what’s needed to grow entrepreneurial opportunity in the years ahead. One of the key themes for this year’s…

  • Starting Small and Dreaming Big: Profile of Broadcom MASTERS’ 2018 Lemelson Invention Prize Winner

    Starting Small and Dreaming Big: Profile of Broadcom MASTERS’ 2018 Lemelson Invention Prize Winner

    A profile of John Madland, Broadcom MASTERS’ 2018 Lemelson Invention Prize Winner Fifteen-year-old John Madland has always had an inventive curiosity. Growing up, he would ask for broken appliances as birthday gifts so that he could fix them. “I rarely give up on an idea,” he says. “Even if it takes several years to, I’ll…

  • NEST360° Initiative Harnesses Invention to Solve Global Health Challenges

    NEST360° Initiative Harnesses Invention to Solve Global Health Challenges

    The Lemelson Foundation is proud to announce our contribution to the launch of NEST360°, a new multi-organization partnership aimed at making a lasting impact on maternal and newborn health in low-resource settings. Current data shows that around 28 in every 1,000 babies in Sub-Saharan Africa die in the first month of life. The NEST360° initiative…