Latest

Mahadevan poses with The Allergent, a food allergy detection device.

The Food Allergy Detective

This young inventor created an AI-enabled, electronic nose to sniff out allergens lurking in your food.

7 min read

Inventing Our Future: A National Inventors’ Day Celebration

A message from Rob Schneider, Executive Director, The Lemelson Foundation

5 min read

Envisioning a Safer Eye Exam

This young inventor created a synthetic model eye to help medical students train for optical procedures.

4 min read

A Champion for Sustainability

Transforming Engineering Curricula to Protect Our Planet

7 min read

Making STEM Education More Inclusive for Emerging Entrepreneurs

Five attributes that innovation and entrepreneurship programs should cultivate

6 min read

Escaping the Ordinary in the Classroom

Grant Kightlinger and Molly Grace, co-creators of the “FairPlay Challenge.” This innovative education curriculum uses an escape room model to engage students in important life lessons. Many of us have had that experience in school of feeling trapped in a boring lesson about a topic that didn’t seem to have any relevance to our lives. But as you watchedMore

9 min read

Making Engineering Elementary

How a model for equity-oriented engineering curriculum is engaging students from all backgrounds and in the earliest grades Students engineering windmills that harness the wind’s energy. (Credit: Youth Engineering Solutions, Museum of Science, Boston) Engineers are crucial to building our future. And to harness the best solutions for tomorrow’s social and environmental challenges, we need aMore

11 min read

Transforming the Game with Invention

Shawn Springs, CEO of Windpact. This former athlete turned entrepreneur and inventor is creating new sports technology to improve player safety. Who can be an inventor? A dynamic new exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation is posing that question through a unique lens, andMore

9 min read

Recharging the Electric Vehicle Industry

Siblings Steven (left) and Zora Chung (right) co-founded technology company ReJoule. This sustainable startup is building a circular economy for EV batteries from the ground up How do you make a critically important sustainable industry even more sustainable? For electric vehicles, one of the challenges is the sustainable source itself — the lithium-ion battery. Although they areMore

11 min read

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  • New Year’s Resolutions for the Impact Incubation Industry

    New Year’s Resolutions for the Impact Incubation Industry

    What all accelerators and funders should know for being a successful social impact incubator

  • Building Climate Innovation Opportunities in Africa

    Building Climate Innovation Opportunities in Africa

    Next month, at COP 28, leaders from across the globe will meet to take action toward the biggest issues in climate change, including financing for Africa. The continent is at the forefront of the world’s most acute climate disasters, yet it receives just 4.7% of total global climate financing — a fraction of the US$2.7…

  • This High-Schooler is Harnessing Chemistry to Combat Pollution

    This High-Schooler is Harnessing Chemistry to Combat Pollution

    An award-winning student inventor, Tarun Batchu has discovered an eco-friendly way to convert plastics into fuel.

  • To Empower Impact Entrepreneurs to Solve the World’s Problems, First Support the Incubators

    To Empower Impact Entrepreneurs to Solve the World’s Problems, First Support the Incubators

    In its early days, the Covid-19 pandemic brought most activities to a grinding halt. But there’s one activity that it absolutely ignited: medical innovation. Imagine microbrewers in North Carolina jumping lanes to make hand sanitizer instead of beer, or a 3-D printing startup in Kenya using its machines to manufacture personal protective equipment (PPE), or…

  • Helping Inventors Get “Unstuck”

    Helping Inventors Get “Unstuck”

    Engineer and entrepreneur Sorin Grama focuses on sustainability and innovation in his work. Read more about Grama’s path to entrepreneurship here. At The Lemelson Foundation, we believe that inventors and inventions are critical to making the world a better place. Our grantees and partners are supporting the creation of innovative products that address some of our…

  • Building Trust and Confidence Through Invention Education

    Building Trust and Confidence Through Invention Education

    Teacher Natalie Mondesir supervises recess at Liberty Elementary School in Midway, GA. In a rural Georgia elementary school, teacher Natalie Mondesir is inspiring hundreds of students to think outside the box. One year at Christmas time, Natalie Mondesir bought a package of candy canes for her students. Like all fourth graders, the children were excited…

  • Empowering Underrepresented Students to Become Entrepreneurs

    Empowering Underrepresented Students to Become Entrepreneurs

    Dr. Sylvia Robles founded the “Adopt a Startup” program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley to encourage entrepreneurship in students and foster sustainability in local businesses. Through her groundbreaking Adopt a Startup program, Dr. Sylvia Robles is inspiring — and incubating — the next generation of sustainability-focused entrepreneurs. How do you support youth…

  • Why Invention Education Will Lead to a Future Full of Innovators

    Why Invention Education Will Lead to a Future Full of Innovators

    A hands-on, inclusive approach to learning, Invention Education gives students agency and the confidence they need to become problem-solvers. Picture a classroom full of students engaged in their learning. But they don’t have books or computers in front of them. Instead, they have cardboard boxes, rubber bands, and duct tape — or maybe circuit boards…

  • 2023 Inventor’s Day Roundup: Inventing for a Better Future

    2023 Inventor’s Day Roundup: Inventing for a Better Future

    These innovators are changing the face of invention — and working to change the world. A hundred years ago this year, Jerry Lemelson was born into a world that was being transformed by the power of invention. He himself became a prolific and versatile inventor, with more than 600 patents across a wide range of…