Project Invent:
Empowering Young Innovators
By Connie Liu
Connie Liu is an engineer turned educator turned entrepreneur. She is now founder and executive director of Project Invent. In 2018, she was selected as one of our Straubel Impact Leaders.
When I applied for the Straubel Award in 2018, Project Invent was just an idea. Now, one year later, Project Invent is in 30 schools across 14 states. We have full-time staff and are building an organization to make innovation opportunities the norm in schools.
For me, the Straubel Impact Leader recognition came at the perfect time to catalyze my entrepreneurial spirit. The award reinforced the importance of solving real-world problems through STEM, and gave me the confidence to pursue building Project Invent full-time. The Straubel Foundation has already supported and fueled the efforts of dozens of young leaders, scientists, entrepreneurs, and changemakers, and being recognized as one of those leaders introduced me to a network of fellows that I continue to look to for support and learning.
Students at the East Palo Alto Academy Project Invent team consulting their mentor, James Wang (left) on their electronics design for their invention of Ultradot, a smart alarm for wheelchair accessible vans.
In Project Invent, high school students are tasked to identify a problem they care about in their community, and invent solutions for social good, the same process that many Straubel fellows engaged in to start their own ventures. Students choose to innovate for problems that they are passionate about, and design solutions that make a difference. They have built everything from smart wallets to help the blind detect bill denominations to football helmets to detect early signs of concussions.
Through this invention process, students learn the skills to succeed individually and impact globally. In a rapidly changing, tech-driven world, our students need to learn how to adapt to uncertainty and solve problems creatively. They won’t learn that through the traditional classroom model of memorizing facts and bubbling in answers. Instead, they need to learn how to tackle messy, real-world challenges.
Project Invent provides a curriculum and has trained 60+ teachers and 550+ students through how to innovate. These teachers are re-shaping the future of education while their students are building a better, more equitable world.
Project Invent, just like the Straubel Foundation, is about empowering young leaders. By empowering teenagers as innovators, we are teaching the next generation how to build a better world through STEM.