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Public Invention receives $20,000 grant from Protocol Labs for VentMon

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Public Invention has received a $20,000 grant from Protocol Labs to build the VentMon, a tester/monitor for rapidly manufactured pandemic ventilators. The pandemic demands a simple device that can be plugged into an airway to test a ventilator. In the developing world, many ventilators are broken and need to be repaired; part of the repairing […]

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What Makes A Good Public Invention Project? (long form)

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“80% of projects are trivial. 20% are impossible. We must work in the thin boundary between these two classes.” — Edsger Dijkstra (quoted from memory) Public Invention fosters project-based invention teams that work “In the public, for the public.” Experience has shown this is a great way to learn, although learning is a secondary benefit

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The Fuller Scale: A Unit of Humanitarian Invention Impact

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Science is about truth; engineering is about compromise. At Public Invention, we do both, but perhaps more engineering than science. Our goal is to have a large positive impact on many people; but time and money are always in short supply.  How, then, to compromise on which projects to prioritize? In order to be able

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