Class

Description

Intellectual Property Clinic
Presented by Aliki Collins

Date/Time/Loc TBD

No limit but advance sign up required (see contact below)
Signup by: 01-Jan-2010
Single session event

"Are you an innovator or inventor? Does your work solve the problems of under-served people or communities? Are you uncertain how (or why) to protect your intellectual property? Do you need advice about intellectual property issues for international community service projects? Then come to the Intellectual Property workshop led by Aliki K. Collins, founder of AKC Patents, LLC.

Even if you don’t intend to benefit financially from your ideas, IP protection may make your project more effective and sustainable. Explore your options at this presentation and Q&A session. This clinic is ideal for IDEAS and other MIT competition teams, 100k Development Track, and all other members of the MIT community who are working on innovations that solve the problems of underserved communities."

Contact: Lars Hasselblad Torres, x4-5176, lhtorres at mit.edu
Sponsor: Public Service Center

Getting Started with A Business Plan
Presented by Catherine Merrill

Date/Time/Loc TBD

No limit but advance sign up required (see contact below)
Signup by: 01-Jan-2009
Single session event

For many innovations for underserved markets, writing a business plan is a key step. Business plans are great at highlighting how to generate profits using market forces, whether the profits return to the innovator or remain in the community. During this 2-hour workshop taught by veteran technology innovator and entrepreneur Catherine Merrill, we will walk through the traditional sections of a business plan, exploring how each helps convey the power an innovation has to change a community. This workshop will help IDEAS teams and anyone starting a new project to use the traditional business plan as a tool to induce others to invest resources in their innovation.

Contact: Lars Hasselblad Torres, x4-5176, lhtorres at mit.edu
Sponsor: Public Service Center

IDEAS Generator Lunch: How To Win!

Date/Time/Loc TBD

The IDEAS Competition is an invention and entrepreneurship competition with community service at its core. IDEAS encourages teams to develop and implement projects that make a positive change in the world. Each year, at least six teams win IDEAS awards of $2500, $5000, and $7500 to develop and implement their projects.

This series is designed to help your team succeed in the IDEAS Competition. Get great tips from the people who choose the winners and the winners themselves! IDEAS judges will talk about how they evaluate applications and project displays, and what convinces them that a project is a winner. Past winners will share successful strategies and the lessons they learned. Lunch will be served.

Yunus Innovation Challenge Lunch

Date/Time/Loc TBD

This year’s Muhammad Yunus Innovation Challenge to Alleviate Poverty is "Affordable Small-scale Energy Storage Solutions." One in four people in the world lack access to electricity. Low-cost renewable energy systems are increasingly accessible to the world's poor, but batteries remain a costly, unsustainable way to store this energy.

This year's Yunus Challenge calls for innovative small-scale energy storage solutions to help alleviate poverty. Solutions must address the needs of people living on less than $2 per day. Solutions are not limited to electrical storage; applicants are encouraged to consider other types of storage, such as storing thermal or mechanical energy. However, solutions should focus on storage and not on insulation or other energy-related issues.

MIT students are encouraged to tackle this challenge with support through Public Service Fellowships, the MIT IDEAS Competition, and D-Lab. At the Challenge lunch, we will show a film related to the issue and then brainstorm possible solutions to energy storage challenges all over the world.  There will also be information about funding and support resources for the Challenge.