Inventing the future: an interview with Josh Schuler, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lemelson-MIT Program.

Inventing the future: an interview with Josh Schuler, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lemelson-MIT Program. THE LEMELSON-MIT PROGRAM The Lemelson-MIT Program is dedicated to honoring the acclaimed and unsung heroes who have helped improve our lives through invention. We inspire and encourage great inventors through various outreach programs such as Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams, a non-competitive, team-based national WORKS TO FOSTER INVENTION by inspiring andencouraging great inventors through various outreach programs such asLemelson-MIT InvenTeams. This program, a non-competitive team-basednational grants initiative for high school students, is a prestigiousawards program that includes the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize The $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, presented by the Lemelson-MIT Program(endowed in 1994 by Jerome H. Lemelson, and administered through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is awarded yearly to inventors from the United States for outstanding achievement. . Studentshave invented potential breakthrough technologies ranging from roboticcoconut tree climbers This list of climbers includes both mountaineers and rock climbers, since many (though not all) climbers engage in both types of activities. The list also includes boulderers and ice climbers. to wind-sensing balloons. The Association forCareer and Technical Education recently interviewed Josh Schuler,executive director of the program. ACTE ACTE Association for Career and Technical Education (formerly American Vocational Association)ACTE Association of Corporate Travel ExecutivesACTE Approvals Committee for Terminal EquipmentACTE Anodal Closure Tetanus : What is the Lemelson-MIT Program? JS: The Lemelson-MIT Program is a nonprofit organization Nonprofit OrganizationAn association that is given tax-free status. Donations to a non-profit organization are often tax deductible as well.Notes:Examples of non-profit organizations are charities, hospitals and schools. based inthe MIT School of Engineering It has been suggested that , , and be merged into this article or section. . Our goal is to recognize outstandinginventors, encourage sustainable new solutions to real-world problemsand enable and inspire young people to pursue creative lives and careersthrough invention. And we actually do this through our awards program.We give out an annual prize called the Lemelson-MIT prize. We also giveout the Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability and the Lemelson-MITStudent Prize. In addition to those awards we have a grants initiativecalled InvenTeams. ACTE: Tell me more about the InvenTeams program. JS: The InvenTeams initiative was launched during the 2002-2003school year with three schools in New England New England,name applied to the region comprising six states of the NE United States—Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The region is thought to have been so named by Capt. . Since then it has grownsignificantly. We went national in 2003-2004, with 10 teams, and thisyear there are 16 teams representing 14 states. In addition to these newgrant recipients each year we work with previous recipients; there areabout 62 in our network now. And most of these schools are active andparticipating in invention projects to different extents. Some haveformed invention clubs, developed curriculum, or have some sort ofprograms related to invention. InvenTeams asks teams composed ofstudents, teachers and industry mentors to identify a problem that theywant to address with an invention, and then we provide funding, supportand a structure to develop a prototype. What's great aboutInvenTeams is it calls for a diverse skill set; it's not just aboutscience, technology, engineering and math but also communications,marketing, finance and project management. It's about developing21st century skills. ACTE: Once the team gets the grant, is there a necessity forparticipants to follow through and produce the product? JS: Well they promise to make a prototype for something, and wecertainly require them to come up with a workable prototype within theeight-month period. ACTE: What kinds of projects do InvenTeams work on? JS: The projects are entirely up to the students, so we'vefound that they really run the gamut See color gamut. gamut - The gamut of a monitor is the set of colours it can display. There are some colours which can't be made up of a mixture of red, green and blue phosphor emissions and so can't be displayed by any monitor. . They do tend to fall into a fewcategories, and I'll run through those and give you a few funexamples. We had a team a few years ago develop a watermelon watermelon,plant (Citrullus vulgaris) of the family Curcurbitaceae (gourd family) native to Africa and introduced to America by Africans transported as slaves. Watermelons are now extensively cultivated in the United States and are popular also in S Russia. ripenessevaluator. It used some really hard core technology--there was somegreat math and some great science behind it. Assisted devices are alsoquite popular. We had an omnidirectional In all directions. For example, an omnidirectional antenna can transmit or receive signals in all directions. Contrast with directional. See RF. wheelchair device and we had abarcode-to-voice device. And as I'm going through these projectnames you're thinking, "Where did the students come up withthese ideas?" Well, they come up with them because they'reproblems that either affect them personally or affect someone they know.The watermelon ripeness evaluator was from a student who worked in afood store and sort of got sick of people asking him, "Hey, is thiswatermelon ripe?" The omnidirectional wheelchair came about becausea student's uncle was confined con��fine?v. con��fined, con��fin��ing, con��finesv.tr.1. To keep within bounds; restrict: Please confine your remarks to the issues at hand.See Synonyms at limit. to a wheelchair and he had troublenavigating his apartment. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ACTE: And the grants are worth up to $10,000? JS; You're right. $10,000 is quite a bit of money, and infact, when I was in high school I wish I had had the opportunity to workon a project with that sort of support. As part of the proposal processthe team is asked to develop a budget for up to $10,000, andthey're also encouraged to be realistic and cost-effective. ACTE: Do you facilitate students working with mentors? JS: Absolutely. InvenTeams is a team effort because invention is ateam effort, and some of the deliverables we have require diverse skillsets. You know, for example, teams can't just be made up ofstudents who excel in AP physics. You need students interested inleadership, communications and entrepreneurship, you need students whoknow how to use tools and make things. Some teams have learned this thehard way--which is again a terrific learning opportunity. For theproposal, we require teams to develop collaborations both inside andoutside the school, especially with any populations who might use thedevice the students are developing. What students (and the teacher too)often learn and learn early is that they can't do everything, andthey don't know Don't know (DK, DKed)"Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. everything. ACTE: Have any inventions from InvenTeams been brought to consumersor been implemented? JS: A number of projects have been implemented and a number ofteams have actually filed for patent protection; but commercializationper se is not really the objective of InvenTeams. Rather, it's thelearning of a process, and if you want to think about it that way, it isprocess over product. I'll give you an example. A high school inLittleton, New Hampshire Littleton is a town in Grafton County, New Hampshire, USA. The population was 5,845 at the 2000 census. Situated at the edge of the White Mountains, Littleton is bounded on the northwest by the Connecticut River. , has a heated sidewalk A Microsoft service that was launched in 1997 to provide online arts and entertainment guides on the Web for major cities worldwide. In 1999, Microsoft sold Sidewalk to Ticketmaster, which continued to provide guides, ticketing and other information to the MSN network. . That sidewalk ispowered by solar power, and the heat energy in it, used to melt thesnow, is heated through waste heat from the school's boilers. AnInvenTeam designed and built that sidewalk as part of their project. ACTE: How can programs such as InvenTeams help students see theconnection between their science and math classes and the real world,and help them get excited about invention? JS: We do that in a number of ways, most directly through theInvenTeams experience--essentially learning by doing. Science and mathclearly are both vital to the invention process, and the science andmath knowledge that the students have going into the project will likelynot be enough to see them through. So there's a natural motivationto learn more about science and math so they can get through theproject. Now what they'll also learn firsthand first��hand?adj.Received from the original source: firsthand information.first about is how scienceand math can interrelate in��ter��re��late?tr. & intr.v. in��ter��re��lat��ed, in��ter��re��lat��ing, in��ter��re��latesTo place in or come into mutual relationship.in . For example, you know, when they'rechoosing materials for something, they need to do both math and sciencein doing so. And they calculate tolerances, cross tradeoffs, etc. Aslong as you make math and science relevant, it can be fun. And it can bemade fun through relevance. To listen to the podcast (iPOD broadCAST) An audio broadcast that has been converted to an MP3 file or other audio file format for playback in a digital music player or computer. The "pod" in podcast was coined from "iPod," the predominant portable, digital music player, and although podcasts are of the full interview with Josh Schuler,executive director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology'sLemelson-MIT program, visitwww.acteonline.org/resource_center/podcasts.cfm.