We did it!

Oct, 24 2018

Today the Lemelson-MIT Program announced the recipients of 2018-2019 InvenTeam^TM grants. Our Rolling Robots Outreach InvenTeam was among the 15 teams awarded up to $10,000 to develop their invention further.

InvenTeam Infographic — InvenTeams from 13 states are developing inventions to help others in three main categories.

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. 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. “We place an emphasis on STEM-focused projects to develop interest in these fields among youth. With InvenTeams, our primary goal is to foster high school students’ passion for invention, in turn inspiring them to consider careers in science, technology, engineering or math.”

The Rolling Robots Outreach InvenTeam is working to solve a pressing problem of their fellow students, the lack of sleep experienced by teens. Sleep deprivation is a serious, widespread issue for students, severely impacting productivity and increasing health risks. The team has proposed to develop a device to monitor and improve sleep habits.

George Kirkman at Rolling Robots Outreach Inc. initiated the InvenTeam application process last spring and attended training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in June 2018 to help prepare the final proposal. Dr. Kirkman has been working with the students, mentors and a review team of professional experts throughout the summer to finalize the grant application. The team has also reached out to community members with expertise in fields related to the problem that the students plan to address for insight and guidance on how their invention can best serve the community. A prestigious panel of judges composed of educators, researchers, staff and alumni from MIT, as well as representatives from the industry and former Lemelson-MIT Award winners, assembled this fall and selected Rolling Robots Outreach Inc. as one of this year’s InvenTeam grantees.

Over the next nine months, the Rolling Robots Outreach InvenTeam will develop its Device to monitor and improve the sleep of teens. In June 2019, the students will showcase a prototype of their invention at EurekaFest at MIT in Cambridge, Mass. 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 Dream Team — Meet the Dream Team: Aaron Isara, Josef Kirkman, Michael Huang, Lucas Loman, Alex Hool, Joseph Bravo, George Kirkman Ann Zhu, Hannah Bauer, Joyce Lee, Aaron Jung, Albert Chen, Anais Gomez, Sharon Maguey, Kathryn Saxton

ABOUT THE LEMELSON-MIT PROGRAM

Celebrating invention, inspiring youth

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

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 at MIT, an institution with a strong ongoing commitment to creating meaningful opportunities for K-12 STEM education.

Inventors Activities August Update

Aug, 29 2018

This month has been time of high activity. Most of our team has completed summer school and are ready to put more work into the InvenTeam proposal.

We started by getting educated about the potential users of our device and about how sleep is measured. Our sleep mentor is Dr. Stephen Brown. Dr. Brown runs the sleep clinic at Long Beach Memorial and provided us with a tour of the facility.

sleep test — The team is learning about brain wave signature from the super sleep technician Denise. Students learned how to distinguish between awake and asleep brainwave patterns and to recognize REM sleep etc.

Two members of the team attended an event hosted by US Congressman Ted Lieu. Ted Lieu is the Representative for our district and the students wanted to reach out to him for support of this project and invention education for high school students.

The team is in the final days of the proposal process and had the chance to present their ideas to Frank yang, the founder and CEO of Simple Human.

Learning to Invent

Jul, 17 2018

Meet the Rolling robots Inventors

Our robotics team has always excelled at every challenge we have put in front of them. They have won big at VEXWorlds and were inducted to the STEM Hall of Fame. Since moving on up to high school, they have consistently won local tournaments and advanced to VEXWorlds. We have a 5 year record of qualifying for the world championship and winning awards each year.

These are remarkable achievements for anyone, and I have little doubt they will all go on to do great things in their lives. But over the last few months I have been wondering what we could possibly do to help them achieve their goals even faster, and I think I have found an answer. Starting now, our non-profit group Rolling Robots Outreach will be creating a new stretch challenge goal for our members: to create a new invention and apply for a US Patent before they graduate from High School.

Sounds impossible but others have done it. It’s ambitious, but whether the team is successful or not, this will be their first giant step onto the bridge between their current VEX competition efforts and future careers in robotics, engineering, and other STEM disciplines. It also will be a fun and demanding challenge for students that want to go the extra mile and really push their skills to the next level.

We will be using the Lemelson MIT “JV-Inventeam” methods to train our students. Recently I was trained in the Lemelson MIT methods and met teachers that have taken their students from the classroom to being US Patent Holders using these same methods. We ran a pilot program and were selected as finalist for the InventTeam award , only 36 teams are selected each year.

Eureka Fest — We have passed the first level. in April 2018 we submitted our Proposal for A Wearable Device to Optimize Sleep. We were selected as an Excite Award Recipient and joined the group of invenTeams at MIT for EurekaFest.

MIT Excite Award Recipients — Here is the group of 36 teachers selected as Excite Award Recipients. These teachers are invited to submit full proposals for the InvenTeam program. Approximately 12 team will be selected to move forward on a year long InvenTeam project.

Meet your instructor: Dr. Kirkman

August Update:

This month has been time of high activity. Most of our team has completed summer school and are ready to put more work into the InvenTeam proposal.

The team is in the final days of the proposal process and had the chance to present their ideas to Frank yang, the founder and CEO of Simple Human.

Labor Day Weekend

YOU CAN HELP!

Donate now to support a STEM education for students everywhere!

Hello! We are an InvenTeam composed of high school students passionate about the importance of getting a good night's sleep. The science of sleep is a growing field of study, and inventions that will help busy people to better balance their work, play, and rest cycles, are sorely needed. We want to be part of that solution.

Our 2018 team has qualified as a finalist in the InvenTeam grant process meaning we are Excite Award Recipients. As an Excite Award Recipient, we are invited to submit a proposal for an invention and be considered as one of the 2018 - 2019 MIT Lemelson InvenTeam honorees. We have some great ideas about inventions that would help people to sleep better, but we need your help.

Therefore, we are seeking donations to fund the proposal effort, and to supplement the MIT-lemelson foundation grant.

The funding will be necessary for the purchase of:

Supplies and equipment to research our invention ideas
Existing products for analysis and reverse engineering
Transportation, to visit sleep clinic and other labs
Additional curriculum for learning using the JV InvenTeam materials

Learn more about our team here: Rolling Robots InvenTeam

Rolling Robots Outreach is a 501 (c)-3 charity your donations are fully tax deducible.

Thank you!

You can make a one-time donation to specifically direct your support to our InvenTeam