“Omg it’s real” - Dr. Vivek
Please consider supporting us and following us on Instagram! Our Instagram is: @emuinvent_inventeam
The EMU newspaper also published an article about us!
Meet The Team!
Front Row: Erica, Suhani, Collin, Amy, Dr. Vivek. Second row: Dr. Ahmed, Jacob, Johnathan, Weiran
Suhani (grade 12, Saline High School) Team Lead, Technology & Administration Lead. I am a national level inventor and I have created 4 inventions in the last 5 years. I look forward to pursuing Data Science in college, and I am incredibly excited to lead this LMIT project!
Weiran (Alice) (grade 11, Saline High School) Co-communications Lead. I participated in EMUiNVENT and competed at the Invention Convention in middle school. I'm interested in going into the business field and I’m very excited about developing inventions throughout the year!
Erica (grade 9, Lincoln High School) Sustainability Lead. I like to run and play sports. I’m excited to make great memories with our team.
Jacob (grade 10, Clarenceville High School) Finance lead. I am interested in going into either sports or law, and I’m excited to be a part of this team this year.
Amy (grade 11, Pioneer High School) Co-communications Lead. I enjoy playing piano and hope to pursue medicine in the future. While I'm new to the world of inventing, I’m excited to be part of our team and experience the process!
Enoc (grade 10, Ypsilanti) I helped the team from problem identification to visualization of our initial design. Together we also wrote the InvenTeam grant.
Apprentice middle school team
Johnathan, Colin, and Rishi are going to observe what it is like being an InvenTeam. They hope to make their own team and be chosen as an InvenTeam in the future!
Rishi Kittali (grade 8, Saline). I joined this team because I wished to learn more about this process so that I can know what I’m going to work on if I join next year, when I am in high school. I am also now interested in the patenting process, and wish to learn more about that as well, and how it will go for the current high school InvenTeam members later on in the project.
Johnathan (grade 7, Dexter). I have been doing the EMUiNVENT program for the past two years. My first year I won first place at the regional competition and third place at the state competition. In 2023 I joined with my friend, Collin, and together we won 2nd place at the state competition, third place and the safety award at nationals, and ended up making it to the global competition. I am excited to join the high school InvenTeam in the coming years. Also, I am excited to be starting a new project for this year.
Collin (grade 7, Dexter). I worked with Jonathan last year to make a foldable tent for homeless people on the streets and also for use as temporary housing during natural disasters. We got 2nd at states, 3rd at nationals including the safety award, and qualified for the Americas competition. I am excited to help with the high school project and compete for a new project as Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam in 2 years.
We also have two wonderful advisors Dr. Muhammad Ahmed and Dr. Shiri Vivek. They will be helping us throughout our entire journey and have been wonderful coaches. We couldn't have gotten here and been chosen as an InvenTeam without their support and help! Thank you, Dr. Ahmed and Dr. Vivek!
What is our goal?
We are working on creating a solution to help people ages 65 and older gain more independence and improve their overall well-being!
Meeting #1 - As an InvenTeam!
Today, we saw the banner that arrived from MIT! We also worked on the press release and started planning out how to get user experiences for our invention. Suhani and Jacob are going to be managing our Instagram, and WE ARE GOING TO GET THAT PIZZA PARTY!!!
Amy and Weiran will be writing this blog from now on, and Weiran will be reaching out to see if we can get more interviews to better understand seniors and the possible drawbacks of the current products they use.
Weiran and Suhani went to the club Rush for ECA to recruit interested students to the team!
Jacob, Rishi Suhani, Erica, and Weiran also went to Seaford Field to reach out to interested students!
Meeting #2 - POSE! PHOTOS! PROMOTE!
Update:
Unfortunately, the retirement home we contacted was unable to help because they are swamped with holiday prep. We will have to reach out to other retirement homes.
Meeting:
During our meeting today, we took team photos, picked our top 3, and sent them to MIT!
Plans:
We will be considering which local companies to reach out to for fundraising in order to finance our trip to MIT next year! Additionally, our team will work on finishing the team charter, which is a list of rules we will make sure to follow. We will specifically require everyone to have at least 80% attendance; it’s non-negotiable — we’re a team, and we move as one!
Also, Suhani and Jacob are taking charge by crafting a letter to a lineup of marketing companies. The goal? Get the word out and let our community know what we’re doing! :D
Meeting #3 - “Invention is all about exploring the pasta-bilities”
Update:
Today was more than just another meeting — it was an official celebration bash for being chosen as an InvenTeam by MIT! We enjoyed wonderful Alfredo pasta, savory chicken, light and creamy Tiramisu, along with some refreshing soda!
Meeting:
We also split up the team to work to further develop two designs! Each subgroup started to focus on the details and possible issues of their assigned designs. This division allows us to maximize efficiency and bring a depth of expertise to the refinement process!
Plans:
In order to further develop our inventions to effectively solve and cover our target audience, we are planning to interview more individuals! During the meeting, we each made a list of people to interview and places to contact to see if we could interview the residents or members. We will also start doing middle-of-the-week meetings to get short updates on everyone’s progress.
Meeting #4 - Pursuing the Patent Path
Today we met with educators from USPTO, Mr. Jose, Mr. Jorge and Mr. Reggie. We gained insights into patent claims and got clarification on the patent searches we conducted for our invention last month. It was a very informative meeting, and we are so thankful that they took the time out of their busy days to help us!
Photo order: Rishi, Amy, Collin
Photo order: Erica (in the back), Suhani, Johnathan, Rishi
Meeting #5 - Inquiries to R2i2
During this meeting, we met with instructors from Richland Two Institute of Innovation (R2i2), Ms. Kirstin and Ms. Robin. Ms. Robin gave us some great ideas to look for with respect to funding for travel, and they both walked us through some details in the process that we need to be conscious of. With their experience mentoring an InvenTeam, we look forward to getting more guidance from them!
We’ve also finished the team charter and will have everyone sign it! Last, but not least, we’ve found people to interview and will do so soon!
Meeting #6 - Drafting, Designing, Developing, Deciding!
Dr. Ahmed reviewed designs in the last meeting and gave some important pointers such as understanding our target audience and also helped us better evaluate our criteria. We revamped our designs and are continuing to work on finalizing both of them!
