Lemelson-MIT Program
The Lemelson-MIT Program celebrates the outstanding innovators and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention. Jerome H. Lemelson, one of U.S. history’s most prolific inventors, and his wife Dorothy founded the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994. It is funded by The Lemelson Foundation and administered by the School of Engineering. The Foundation sparks, sustains and celebrates innovation and the inventive spirit. It supports projects in the U.S. and developing countries that nurture innovators and unleash invention to advance economic, social and environmentally sustainable development.
The Lemelson-MIT Program fosters interest in and appreciation for invention, especially among youth, through various outreach initiatives and resources:
- Presented annually, EurekaFest™ is a multi-day celebration designed to empower a legacy of inventors through activities that inspire youth, honor role models, and encourage creativity and problem solving.
- The Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam™ initiative awards grants up to $10,000 each to teams of high school students, teachers, and mentors to invent technological solutions to real-world problems. Each October, high schools from across the United States are selected as InvenTeams. The initiative is actively exploring international and corporate engagement opportunities.
- The Invention Index is an annual survey that gauges Americans’ perceptions about invention and innovation.
The annual Lemelson-MIT Innovation Awards serve to promote and stimulate invention:
- The $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize honors outstanding mid-career inventors dedicated to improving our world through technological invention and innovation.
- The $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation recognizes and supports inventors working to safeguard the well-being of our communities and planet.
- The $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize honors promising young inventors studying at MIT.
- The program also funds national collegiate student prizes at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The Lemelson-MIT Program also supports MIT’s academic programs and student competitions through partnerships with the MIT IDEAS Competition, MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, and 2.009 Product Engineering Processes course.
