High School Invention Grants

The Lemelson-MIT Program announced today the 15 teams of high school students, teachers and mentors selected to participate in the 2009–2010 InvenTeam initiative. The teams will pursue year-long invention projects and have hands-on access to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.

Each InvenTeam will receive up to $10,000 in grant funding to create a technological solution to a real-world problem of their choosing. InvenTeam projects this year include a portable, human-powered UV water filtration device, a physical therapy chair designed to reduce muscular atrophy, and a temperature-sensitive color-changing roof to combat global warming.

In June, teams will showcase their early prototypes at EurekaFest, a multi-day celebration of the inventive spirit, presented by the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus in Cambridge, Mass.

A panel of judges composed of educators and researchers from MIT and Harvard University, industry representatives, MIT staff and alumni, and former Lemelson-MIT Program Award winners select the InvenTeams from a national pool of applicants. They are selected based on ingenuity and demonstrated potential in creative thinking.

In addition to the 15 new InvenTeams this year, continuation grants of up to $2,000 will be awarded to select teams interested in pursuing projects from the previous year.

To read about the chosen teams,, visit http://web.mit.edu/inventeams/currentinventeams.html

To apply for the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam 2010–2011 school year, visit http://web.mit.edu/inventeams.