Groundbreaking Inventiveness to be Rewarded at Illinois
New $30,000 Lemelson-Illinois Student Prize Available to Undergraduate and Graduate Students
URBANA, Ill. (June 21, 2006) – At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the spirit of invention lives and breathes within the research laboratories, classrooms, hallways, and dorm rooms. Now, the breakthrough ideas conceived by Illinois undergraduate and graduate students can get an additional financial boost with the new $30,000 Lemelson-Illinois Student Prize that will be awarded beginning in 2007.
The award is being offered through a partnership between the University of Illinois and the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a non-profit organization that recognizes outstanding inventors, encourages sustainable new solutions to real world problems, and enables and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention. The Lemelson-Illinois Student Prize will be awarded annually to an undergraduate or graduate student who has created or improved a product or process, applied a technology in a new way, redesigned a system, or demonstrated remarkable inventiveness in other ways.
“I think this award recognizes the excellence we have here,” explained Ilesanmi Adesida, dean of the College of Engineering at Illinois. “We have a long history of ‘delivering innovation,’ and this award demonstrates that our students are worthy of investment. We are proud to be part of this partnership.”
“The spirit of invention thrives at Illinois, but more can always be done to encourage and support young, creative minds,” said Merton Flemings, director of the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Our goal is to help give inventive individuals the recognition and additional resources they need to turn their visions into realities.”
The new Lemelson-Illinois Student Prize is an extension of the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, which has recognized outstanding student inventors at MIT since 1995. Recent winners of the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize have invented a personal air vehicle (Carl Dietrich, 2006), new therapies for cancer and stroke (David Berry, 2005), a desktop printer-sized device to mold eyeglass lenses (Saul Griffith, 2004), swarm robots (James McLurkin, 2003), a low-cost rocket engine and aerial surveillance system (Andrew Heafitz, 2002), a “silicon-less” plastic memory chip (Brian Hubert, 2001) and a screenless grain hammermill (Amy Smith, 2000).
The winner of the $30,000 Lemelson-Illinois Student Prize will be chosen by a distinguished panel of scientists, technologists, engineers, and entrepreneurs. Interested students may apply for the award, and the winner will be announced at a press conference in 2007.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY) joins Illinois as a new partner institution, and will begin offering the new student prizes.
About the Lemelson-MIT Program
The Lemelson-MIT Program recognizes outstanding inventors, encourages sustainable new solutions to real world problems, and enables and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention. It accomplishes this mission through outreach activities and annual awards and grants, including the prestigious $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize and Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams, a non-competitive, team-based invention experience for high school students. Jerome H. Lemelson, one of the world’s most prolific inventors, and his wife, Dorothy, founded the non-profit Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994. More information is online at http://web.mit.edu/invent and www.inventeams.org.
About the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois has long ranked among the nation’s most distinguished teaching and research institutions. As the largest public university in the state, the U of I campus hosts 41,938 students—30,909 undergraduate and 11,029 graduate and professional—its diverse, world-class programs reflect the mission of a comprehensive, land-grant university. Eleven colleges, two institutes, and two schools offer 4,000 courses and 150 programs of study. More than 80 centers, laboratories and institutes perform research for federal and state agencies, private industry and other campus units. In 2003, The U of I spent $494 million on research and development in science and engineering and ranks 16th among U.S. universities for money spent on campus research.
Contact: Rhiannon Clifton, Technology Entrepreneur Center, College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 217/244-4035, rclifton@uiuc.edu.
Melissa Makofske, Lemelson-MIT Program, 617/452-2170, melm@mit.edu.
