To celebrate National Inventors Month, Alexis Hopper put together a blog post highlighting 优蜜视频 Student Inventions through The Process of Inventing.

听鈥淎n invention has to make sense in the world it finishes in, not in the world it started.鈥� 鈥擳ime O鈥橰eilly

In 1998, the Academy of Applied Science, United Inventors Association of America, and Inventors鈥� Digest magazine came together to bring us National Inventors Month. 鈥淲e want to recognize those talented, brave individuals who dare to be blatantly creative, and therefore different, and whose accomplishments affect every facet of our lives,鈥� said the editor of Inventors鈥� Digest, Joanne Hayes-Rines.

Whether advancing the fields of science, technology, arts, or humanities, human ingenuity is fueled by the spark of genius, as well as these other key drivers. Check out examples of our own student inventors鈥� projects and how they each illustrate a different aspect of the inventing process.

1. CURIOSITY

Students in Cells: Under the Microscope practice how to use a compound microscope properly to identify structures that relate to functions of a cell.

2. INNOVATION

Shark Tank: Products and Pitches student Gabe shares his prototype for a customizable card game with a panel of 鈥淪harks鈥�.

3. PURPOSE

Students Dante and Mateo put the finishing touches on their robotic arm in Advanced Arduino Projects.

4. DESIGN

Student drawings from Math for Future Architects using Cartesian Plane and Plotting Coordinates.

5. CREATION

Students in Creative Writing: The Next Chapter work on their final draft and book cover designs.

6. EXPERIMENTATION

Kitchen Chemistry students Eli and George dig their hands into quasi-solid states of matter.

7. DOCUMENTATION

Rube Goldberg students Amalia and William document their findings on how to optimize a pulley system.

8. COLLABORATION

What鈥檚 Your Strategy: Board Game Design students share their final projects.

9. VISION

Zoo Design student, Kai, with his model for a habitable enclosure for the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach.

Ways to Celebrate National Inventors Month

1. Take a moment to learn more about the inventions that have improved your life. Do you wear glasses or contacts? Do you drink filtered water? Do ride a bicycle, skateboard or wear Heel Wheels? Find newfound appreciation for the inventions in your life by researching the who, what and when that made them a reality.
2. Advocate for inventors by joining the community. Check out these sites from the makers of National Inventors Month:

• Academy of Applied Science

3. Listen to your inner inventor! Don鈥檛 brush aside ideas that strike you at the moment. It鈥檚 inspiration calling.

优蜜视频 Summer Academy is still open for applicants. to learn more about our summer sessions.

Going into high school, I was dead set on becoming an engineer. Although art was one of my passions, I never really realized what value my art skills held and what I could potentially use it for on a professional level. However, my perspective on creative careers and my future plans changed when I attended the Institute for Educational Advancement鈥檚 at , under the mentorship of Professor Stan Kong.

I applied for the product design site of this program. The funny thing is, though, was that I didn鈥檛 know what product design was at all – or the essence of design. I just knew that the program would teach basic sketching and rendering skills as the description mentioned, which was enough to pique my interest. Despite this, I ended up learning so much more.

In the first week at ArtCenter, I learned about the product design industry, the design process and business-oriented techniques and experiences. I was surprised to discover how diverse, versatile and vast product design is as a field, in addition to how the design process resembled the scientific method; it begins with a prompt, followed by research, reformulation of prompt or objective, and a cycling between ideation, development and testing until, finally, production.

One of the biggest things I took away from the first week was how to work and thrive in a company. Communication, collaboration, understanding 鈥� these are all important to obtaining success in the industry. And I know because we actually did a project that resembled the experience of working in a company in which we had to work with others to create a flashlight design that satisfied the needs of a particular consumer. In teams, we interviewed our client, researched materials and resources, elaborated on different ideas and pitched our design. Being familiar with your client, demographic, competitors and the market place was the key to success. For me it was challenging to manage so many ideas in a group, to eliminate what was impractical and to agree on a particular vision. It鈥檚 through this first-hand experience, though, that I learned how work with others better, whether it was in EXPLORE or outside of it.

In the following weeks, we worked on more collaborative projects, like designing lunchboxes and water bottles, and we all improved in communicating and understanding. We learned more about the industry, like branding and advertising. However, we also learned about ArtCenter itself by exploring all their offered majors and what it felt like to be a college student.

The whole experience was so fun, stimulating, and enriching in that I not only learned, but experienced the product design process, business and marketing and ArtCenter. And it was so much better that I experienced this with peers who were funny, talented, and ambitious; I鈥檒l remember all the laughs and the trip on the ArtCenter shuttle where we played games the entire way back. I also had the pleasure of being taught skills and life lessons from Stan鈥檚 personal experiences that I鈥檒l take with me in the future.

Because I joined the 优蜜视频 EXPLORE Externship at ArtCenter, I鈥檝e become a better collaborator, presenter, artist and life-long learner. I plan to study and pursue product, industrial or interactive design in the future. In fact, I hope to be admitted to one of the several colleges to which I applied to study both engineering and design, two passions I鈥檝e learned were anything but exclusive. For now, I鈥檒l be attending , a program that EXPLORE introduced me to.

I hope that my experience encourages others to explore their interests or overlooked passions to discover what the world has to offer 鈥� and what they can offer to the world.

Want to experience a hands-on externship under the guidance of an experienced mentor this summer? ! Applications for the 2019 program are due April 9, 2019.