Invention Factory Concludes Fifth Edition with Remarkable Innovations

National, 15th July 2024: India’s academic ecosystem is undergoing a monumental transformation to make education more relevant to real-world needs. Invention Factory, a summer program in inventing, is driving this movement forward. This collaborative initiative between Maker Bhavan Foundation (MBF) and IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Bombay, and IIT Jammu has been a catalyst for innovation.

With 146 students and 74 provisional patent applications, this program—originally founded in the U.S. by Prof. Alan Wolf (a Physics professor and U.S. Patent Attorney) and Prof. Eric Lima (a Mechanical Engineering professor) from the Cooper Union—empowers young minds to invent, disrupt, and shape the future. For the fifth edition of the program, Invention Factory shortlisted 60 students from the 700 who had applied from science, engineering, and design colleges.

Professor Manoj Gaur, Director, IIT Jammu, stated, “Invention Factory is an immersive program wherein our faculty, students, and volunteers engage themselves with a wide variety of problems towards physical deployable solutions. This is a very interesting program where we are learning to understand how, on fast track, we can identify a problem, find a solution, and create an IPR worth provisional patent.”

The top three “Best Inventions” at each location received a financial incentive. Every participating team has the opportunity to file a provisional patent application for their prototype in both India and the U.S. This year, participants will file 30 provisional patent applications, which protects inventions for one year. This brings the total number of provisional patent applications from the program to over 100.

“Invention Factory offers engineering and design students an opportunity to identify significant problems and create patentable solutions. Participants learn problem identification, solution design, prototype testing, and most importantly patent law, which is usually not covered in their regular curriculum. In six weeks, they develop an inventive mindset and transform into inventors,” said Professor Madhu Vadali, Mech. Engg., IIT Gandhinagar and Professor-in-Charge, Invention Factory.