Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams

Basically the title was our reaction when we woke up that day.

We woke up and went to Stata to see the presentations. Of course they were amazing.

Lunch. Fufulling?

Then we got bored and decided have a photoshoot. It was amazing. I’m sure 25% percent of picture I took went into that, and I took 265 pictures. Afterwards we explored the campus one last time, and ditched Elena. Well not really, but it’s a complex story.

The Gala. They told us it would be formal?

It looked like we were in a rave.

The food was good, all the guest speakers were amazing and we won the riddles!! This is what we each won =]

After the Gala, we went back to my dorm were we tried to keep ourselves happy even though we knew this would be our last day. We kept ourselves entertained enough. We made the best of it and we had a lot of fun.

I really would like to thank Lemelson-MIT for giving us this chance to explore, invent, and to have fun. We got to know other schools really well, as well as get to know our team mates even better. The Odyssey, no, the entire year has been one great adventure for our InvenTeam, and I give my sincerest thanks to Lemelson-MIT for giving us that adventure.

I also want to thank Kayla and Michelle for giving Elena and I the opportunity to pour our thoughts into this blog. It’s a great sarcastic record of our events.

Until Next Year?

315 Out.

My name is Meily Machado and I come from George T Baker Aviation Team. I have to say that I’m so glad I had the opportunity of participating in such a great event, and been given the opportunity of showing my abilities as a person and a teammate. This has been a one in a lifetime opportunity. Our invention is the Lightweight Portable solar traffic signal, which helps during natural disasters such as hurricanes. I’m glad we had the chance of presenting and letting people know what we are trying to do to help the world. The Odyssey was wonderful. It is a very pleasant environment and everyone is very nice, specially as Leigh and Kayla that helped me very much.

Our last full day at MIT was the 22nd. Like always, we had breakfast till 8a.m, but we finally enjoyed free time from 8:30 to 10. During that time, I went back into MIT’s main building and went into the Barker Engineering Library located on the 5th floor. The library had a massive reading room filled with the latest references, magazines, technical papers, comfy seats, and even interesting sculptures. Also, floors 6th-8th were filled with books at every corner, but it somehow managed to slide in a random seat between shelves. Of course, when i was there around 9, there was literally no one else in there except for the people at the front desk =D.

By 11:30, the final project presentations started. The most memorable presentation was from the Hillsboro InvenTeam. Somewhere in the middle of their powerpoint slide, the ‘blue screen of death’ showed up . Minutes later, a pirated version of Windows XP start-up screen was displayed and the audience started clapping! Unfortunately….or fortunately, the team was only joking and resumed to their “normal” presentation.

We were given free time again from 12 till 6:30. At 6:30pm, everyone attended the Odyssey Gala (our final banquet). The moment we walked in, we were covered by the multi-colored flashing lights. It was fun to hear the guys in our team complain about the pink light. After a few minutes, we viewed the Odyssey picture slide. It was strange that we didn’t notice the staff and their cameras at the point when the pictures were taken. So, as you can imagine we took…great pictures!!

Later on, it was revealed that my team, the Eleanor Roosevelt High School Inventeam won the riddle contest (special thanks to Saheed for correcting the mistake)!! So we each received a game pen, either Etch a Sketch or Operation. After dinner, James McLurkin, the inventor of “Robot Ants” gave us a presentation along with a demonstration of his robotic swarm.

After the Gala, we all met at Anuj’s room where some of our team members left to play frisbee while the rest went on their laptops (I stayed behind =). We all tried to savor our final moments at MIT one way or another. I truly wish that I was able to stay there longer. The Odyssey has been a wonderful experience that I will always remember. Through out the week, I met new friends, gained rare experiences (labs, showcase, tours), learned about future technologies that may enter the market, and even discovered new facts about my team members.

Thank you MIT and the Lemelson-MIT Program for this great experience!!

Hey Guys,

Jess here; from the Merrimack High School Biodiesel Crew. It has certainly been quite an adventure here at M.I.T. First off I would like to tell you a little about myself and how I have contributed and have been changed by our biodiesel project. My advisor Mr. Sleep recruited me at the beginning of the 06-07 school year when I was in his chemistry class, we were talking one day and I had told him that I was involved with the automotive program at our school. I have always been interested in the way auto mobiles work, I`ve always been a problem solver and I have the ability to work on cars. It seemed to be a perfect match and I have been apart of the team ever since. I began with doing some maintance on our 89 International bedazzling blue bus. I did things such as taking out the air conditioner to get more mileage, changing glow plugs and removing the unleaded gas tank.

Since I began I have had the opportunity to meet with many interesting as well as inspiring people. One in particular was Helen from I-Robot. It was great to see a successful female inventor. There were some very cool hacks such as the extending hand butler robot, I think I might have to get one of those. I have gotten the chance to participate in giving presentations thus; improving my communication skills. The project has allowed me to become more of a critical thinker and more confident about my project. Well, that is all the time I have for tonight until next, everyone have a safe trip home.