Invention

Focusing on innovative solutions to the world’s energy challenges

The MIT Energy Club hosts its sixth annual EnergyHack with 260 participants joining in from around the globe in this all-virtual event.

December 3, 2020

A map of the United States locating 2020-21 winners of Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams grants

High school teams receive 2020-21 Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam Grant for invention projects

Thirteen teams receive up to $10K for invention projects that address local and worldwide problems.

November 9, 2020

Illustration of gloved hands holding a facemask, with the words Re-imagine Mask Innovation Challenge superimposed

Innovative face masks and medical-grade gowns to combat Covid-19 and future pandemics

Three most promising PPE solutions selected by expert judges on MIT Pandemic Response CoLab.

November 9, 2020

The Engine announces second round of funding to support “tough tech” companies

MIT spinout continues its investment in early-stage startups working to solve key challenges in climate change, human health, and advanced systems.

October 27, 2020

Six people pose in front of structure made of a shipping container

Designing off-grid refrigeration technologies for crop storage in Kenya

A team of MIT researchers is using the thermodynamic properties of water evaporation to bring off-grid cold storage of produce to remote, arid regions.

October 16, 2020

3M is collaborating with the lab of MIT Associate Professor Hadley Sikes to jointly develop a rapid Covid-19 test. Here, 3M Covid-19 test team members work in a pilot lab facility.

MIT team collaborates with 3M to develop rapid Covid-19 test

Company working with Sikes Lab to test feasibility of low-cost diagnostic that could be manufactured by the millions each day.

July 14, 2020

A new challenge launched by MIT App Inventor — a web-based, visual-programming environment that allows children to develop applications for smartphones and tablets — encourages kids and adults to build mobile technologies that could be used to help stem the spread of Covid-19, aid local communities, and provide moral support to people around the world. This image includes four screenshots from...

Empowering kids to address Covid-19 through coding

MIT App Inventor Challenge allows children to create apps that tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

July 9, 2020

"The World Wide Web is famously said to have been inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's short story 'Dial F For Frankenstein," says Professor Alexandre. "Whatever the truth is, I'm not surprised that a writer's process of meticulously crafting creative ways of communicating with readers would lead to imaginary inventions that foresee entirely new forms of communication. Literature, its readers, and the i...

3 Questions: Sandy Alexandre on the literary roots of technological innovations

“Our speculative fiction writers are the unsung prophets among us.”

June 1, 2020

Shriya Srinivasan of MIT is the $15,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize “Cure it!” Graduate Winner for her Cutaneous Mechanoneural Interface (CMI), a new type of surgical process for amputee patients that would allow a person to sense what their prosthesis feels.

Top collegiate inventors awarded 2020 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize

Students around the country recognized for innovative solutions to better single-use plastic, spacecraft and aircraft fuel gauges, surgery techniques, and more.

April 29, 2020