BCS Students Receive Invention Grant

Berlin M.S./H.S. was recently awarded a Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam grant in the amount of $4,305 to create a device for the deaf and hearing impaired that would alert them to oncoming traffic while participating in a sporting activity. BCS is one of 14 high schools nationwide to be selected as an InvenTeam this year.
InvenTeams are teams of high school students, teachers and mentors that receive grants up to $10,000 each to invent technological solutions to real world problems. Entering its eighth year, this initiative of the Lemelson-MIT Program aims to inspire a new generation of inventors.
“The InvenTeams program represents the future,” said Leigh Estabrooks, invention education officer from the Lemelson-MIT Program. “With STEM-focused projects from the Obama administration and leading organizations becoming more prevalent, it’s important to maintain momentum and continue to inspire youth in these fields. With InvenTeams, our primary goal is to foster high school students’ passion for invention and innovation, in turn inspiring them to become leaders and mentors.”
Dawn Wetmore, Technology Education Teacher at BCS, initiated the InvenTeam application process last spring and attended training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in June to help prepare the final proposal. A prestigious panel of judges composed of educators and researchers from MIT and Harvard University, representatives from the industry, MIT staff and alumni and former Lemelson-MIT Award winners assembled this fall and selected Berlin as one of this year’s InvenTeam grants.
The Berlin InvenTeam will work with Burt Swersey, Clinical Lecturer in the School of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who will guide the students through the development of their invention.
“I am delighted to hear that Berlin has been awarded this highly competitive grant from the Lemelson-MIT Program,” said Swersey.
Over the next nine months, the Berlin InvenTeam will develop its Adaptive Sports Device for the deaf and hearing impaired. In June the students will showcase a prototype of their invention at EurekaFest at MIT in Cambridge, MA. EurekaFest, presented by the Lemelson-MIT Program, 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 Program recognizes the outstanding inventors and innovators transforming our world and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through innovation.
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 supports projects in the United States and developing countries that nurture innovators and unleash invention to advance economic, social and environmentally sustainable development. To date The Lemelson Foundation has donated or committed more than $150 million in support of its mission. For more information about the Lemelson-MIT Program, visit http://web.mit.edu/invent.