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TO EDUCATION, NATIONAL, AND TECHNOLOGY EDITORS:
College Students Unveil Technology Innovations in the Heart of Silicon
Valley That Address Critical Societal Issues
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 18, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The
National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA), an
education network that cultivates revolutionary ideas and
life-changing inventions,will host its 18th annual Open Minds showcase
of student invention and innovation in Silicon Valley on Saturday,
March 22, 2014 from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. PDT at The Tech Museum of
Innovation. The public event will exhibit the biomedical,
environmental and transportation innovations of seventeen student
teams from some of the most prestigious colleges and universities
across the country.
"Our goal is to harness the ingenuity of student inventors and help
them turn their ideas into innovations with global impact," said Phil
Weilerstein, executive director at the NCIIA.
NCIIA's innovative model of early support, mentoring and funding has
changed the educational landscape for faculty, students and investors.
The organization has trained 500 student teams that have raised more
than $300 million to grow and launch 200 new ventures. More than half
of these ventures are still in business today, reaching millions of
people in more than 50 countries and helping to solve critical social
issues.
Innovations nurtured by NCIIA are transforming lives, from life-saving
medical interventions to environmentally sustainable solutions. Some
of the prototypes visitors can expect to see include:
-- Disease Diagnostic Group, a handheld malaria diagnosis device that
provides a diagnosis in one minute with one drop of blood from a
fingertip (Case Western Reserve University).
-- HMSolution, a water filtration system for the residential market
that reduces arsenic and heavy metals concentrations to safe levels
and requires little to no maintenance for over ten years (Brown
University).
-- Hole Patch, a non-toxic solution for cold-weather pothole repair
that is faster, simpler and cheaper than current practices (Case
Western Reserve University).
-- Innoblative Designs, a preclinical medical device company dedicated
to commercializing a novel technology that will make the treatment of
early-stage breast cancer faster, safer, more convenient and less
expensive (Northwestern University).
-- JustMilk, a means of administering drugs and nutrients to
breastfeeding infants in developing countries via disintegrating
tablets (University of California, Berkeley).
-- Rehabtics, a software system for physical rehabilitation using
Microsoft's Kinect cameras to track users' motions in real time in an
accessible and engaging form of rehabilitation that encourages use and
achieves improved patient recovery (Johns Hopkins University).
Open Annual Conference The Open Minds showcase is part of OPEN, the
NCIIA's annual conference on science and technology entrepreneurship
in higher education, which brings together students, faculty members,
business leaders and investors to share best practices, lessons
learned and inspiration to transform game-changing ideas into
solutions for people and the planet.
The conference is being held in San JoseMarch 20-22 at the Marriott
Hotel. The preconference workshop, Sustainable Vision Connect,
features speaker Paul Polak, a world-renowned author of The Business
Solution to Povertyand expert on global development strategies; Amy
Smith, the founder of MIT's D-Lab and Paul Hudnut, the founder of
Envirofit, a company that delivers clean-burning cookstove technology
to the developing world.
Other international highlights include Ticora Jones, senior advisor
and program director in the Office of Science and Technology at U.S.
Agency for International Development; Charina Choi, a White House
Fellow at the Office of Science and Technology Policy; and
international faculty from across the globe.
Acclaimed MacArthur fellow, inventor and founder of Otherlab, Saul
Griffith, will keynote the Sustainable Practice Impact Award ceremony
in partnership with The Lemelson Foundation, an award that recognizes
companies or an individual demonstrating outstanding achievement in
developing clean technologies; implementing sustainable practices in
their businesses; or providing exceptional education opportunities to
university students. This year's winner is Burt Swersey of Renssealaer
Polytechnic Institute (RPI), a professor and entrepreneur who founded
RPI's Inventor's Studio, which has spun out several companies. One
company, Ecovative Design, is responsible for creating a new material
made from mushrooms and agricultural waste that has the potential to
replace Styrofoam. He will be awarded $10,000.
About the NCIIA The NCIIA catalyzes positive social and environmental
impact through invention and technological innovation by providing
funding, training and mentoring for university faculty and student
innovators.
With support from The Lemelson Foundation, the National Science
Foundation, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation, and a membership of nearly 200 colleges
and universities from all over the United States, the NCIIA engages
approximately 5,000 student entrepreneurs each year, leveraging their
campuses as working laboratories for invention and innovation and
incubators for businesses, and ultimately helping them to bring their
ideas to market. For more information, visit http://www.nciia.org.
About The Lemelson Foundation The Lemelson Foundation uses the power
of invention to improve lives, by inspiring and enabling the next
generation of inventors and invention based enterprises to promote
economic growth in the U.S. and social and economic progress for the
poor in developing countries. Established by prolific U.S. inventor
Jerome Lemelson and his wife Dorothy in 1992, to date the Foundation
has provided or committed more than $175 million in grants and
program-related investments in support of its mission. For more
information, visit www.lemelson.org.
Contact: Mercy Albaran 415-901-0111 x222 malbaran@fenton.com
SOURCE National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA)
-0- 03/18/2014
CO: National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA)
ST: California
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