Month: April 2014

The 9th annual Focus on Creative Inquiry (FoCI) Poster Forum featured over 140 posters from various Creative Inquiry groups. Beyond the poster presentations this year’s activities included cooking, robotics, and technology demonstrations, food, prizes, and an engaging presentation from Assistant Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, Dr. Molly Kennedy.

Prizes were awarded to the top teams of students for both the popular and juried poster categories. The popular winners were chosen by attendees voting for their favorites using their smart phones or mobile devices. The juried winners were chosen by a group of over 80 volunteers made up of faculty, staff, and graduate students representing various academic areas.

Juried Winners:

1. Just keep grazing: Parrotfish grazing and dietary selectivity in the Florida Keys
2. The influence of rearing environment on life history and morphological traits of sailfin molly fish (P. latipinna)
3. Determination of chemical weathering rates using mass balance equations and determination of weathering products using X-ray diffraction

Popular Winners:

1. Brake assembly bench part set up and part presentation
2. Freshmen/senior design and mentoring experiences in bioengineering
3. Designing medical technology for developing countries

The Lemelson-MIT National Collegiate Student Prize Competition is a nationwide search for the most inventive undergraduate and graduate students, with winning undergraduate teams receiving $10,000 in two categories and graduate student winners receiving $15,000 in two categories:

• “Cure it!” for students with inventions that can improve healthcare
• “Use it!” for students with inventions that can improve consumer devices and tools

Tyler won in the “Cure it!” undergraduate team category for his work in the Designing Medical Technology for the Developing World Creative Inquiry project. The other students associated with this team are Alex Devon, and Kayla Gainey. Kayla is now a Graduate student mentor to the team she joined as an undergraduate student.

The Lemelson-MIT Program celebrates outstanding inventors and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention.

Students interesting in applying for this competition in 2015 can contact the Lemelson-MIT program directly at Lemelson_awards@mit.edu to find out further details on the application process.

Please join us in congratulating Tyler Ovington!

See the announcement or read about it in MIT News.

Have an idea to help others?

Clemson has a new I&E Community (Innovation and Entrepreneurship Community) that is focusing on engaging and empowering students to make impacts. It is powered by students and sponsored by Clemson’s Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership. To celebrate Clemson’s Innovation and Research Month, Clemson’s I&E Community is hosting an I&E Week with pitch competitions for thousands of dollars all next week.

All you have to do is create 3 slides by Saturday to potentially win thousands of dollars to help you help others through social innovation. Every year Clemson’s Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership hosts Social Launchpad to reward and help students who want to help others.
More information at clemson.edu/centers-institutes/spiro/social-launchpad/
Question and Answer Session to be held in the Brown Room of the library from 3:30-4:30 4/11

Like the Clemson I&E Community page on Facebook to stay in the know and join us in conversation on Twitter @ClemsonIandE

Events

• Monday, April 14th – Social Launchpad Pitch Finals
  • 5:00pm in the Brown Room located in the entrance of the library
  • More information at clemson.edu/centers-institutes/spiro/social-launchpad/
• Tuesday, April 15th – App For That Pitch
  • Bring your invention idea and pitch it for $100 and a chance to be fast tracked to the LaunchpadSC finals.
  • 5:00pm in the Brown Room located in the entrance of the library
• Wednesday, April 16th- Invention Convention
  • Bring your invention idea and pitch it for $100 and a chance to be fast tracked to the LaunchpadSC finals.
  • 5:00pm in the Brown Room located in the entrance of the library
• Friday, April 17th – LaunchpadSC pitch competition
  • Students pitch their new venture ideas for $5K in cash and prizes.
  • To be held at Greenville ONE, the cool new MBA program building located in the center of downtown Greenville.
  • More information at clemson.edu/centers-institutes/spiro/launchpadsc/index.html