Organization:Lemelson-MIT Student Prize

Overview

The Lemelson-MIT Student Prize is a National Collegiate Student Award Competition open to teams of two to five undergraduates and individual graduate students. The scholarship is open to students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as from schools at partnering institutions such as Rensselaer and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Purpose

which showcases student inventions and encourages the pursuit of innovative processes. The nationally renowned award program encourages and inspires young people to pursue innovative studies and career paths that center around creative problem solving.

Distinct Differences From Other Offerings

The student prize competition has two prompts each year. These prompts rotate and consist of two of the following categories for invention submissions: "Cure it!" - re-imagine healthcare, "Eat it!" - reimagine food and agriculture, "Drive it!" - re-imagine transportation, "Use it!" - reimagine devices and tools, "Wear it!" - re-imagine consumer products, "Network it!" - re-imagine how products and services are delivered through web-based networks. 

Impact Achieved For Students and Campus

Students or teams of students receive a cash prize of $10,000 or $15,000 for undergraduate and graduate students, respectively. Award winners also received national recognition, exposure to science, business and other valuable communities that aid in implementation as well as a trip to MIT for the EurekaFest held annually in June. 

The prize is not only a tool to recognize but to financially enable students to bring their already established inventions to makrer and to encourage the continual work towards experimentation and innovative thinking and action. 

(Include images, where possible, and campuses involved)

Steps Required To Bring Resource to Campus

Cal tech (previous participant)

University of Illinois-Urbana

Rensselaer