Public Invention, Inc., (this non-profit) encourages student groups to create clubs at their schools devoted to the ideas of Public Invention and Humanitarian Engineering. In fact, we’ve written a article explaining how and why to do this, which we would be happy for you to share. However, to use the name “Public Invention”, which is […]
Register your Student Public Invention Club with Us! Read More »
Public Invention’s motto is “Invent in the public, for the Public.” Inventing in the public means working “in the light”—letting everyone see the work product as you go along. In a sense, working in the light is a form of mentoring that is available to all for free. But people need one-on-one, personal mentoring as
Mentorship through Collaboration Read More »
— Robert L. Read, PhD, Founder Public Invention — Joshua M. Pearce, John M. Thompson Chair in Information Technology and Innovation Thompson Centre for Engineering Leadership & Innovation, Ivey Business School Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Western University — Avinash Baskaran, PhD candidate, Robotics, Auburn University — Megan Cadena, Biomedical Engineer, UT Austin
How to Start a Public Invention and Humanitarian Engineering Club at your University Read More »
By Ben Coombs “As to diseases, make a habit of two things – to help, or at least to do no harm.” written by Hippocrates in Epidemics. A Diagram of Major Humanitarian Engineering Efforts (Link allows zooming) Early in 2020 the alarm bells rang out. All across the world people tuned into news about
The Humanitarian Engineering Response to the Pandemic: The New Year’s Mid-game Read More »
— Robert L. Read In June and July, Public Invention applied for and received two $20,000 grants, one from the Mozilla Open Source Software (MOSS) Foundation, and one from Protocol labs, specifically to develop, make, and give away free-of-charge, the “VentMon” tester for invasive and non-invasive ventilators. The MOSS foundation grant had stronger legal language
Our progress and plans: An open letter about the VentMon to donors and grantors Read More »
Dear Anonymous Donor, Thank you for your recent generous anonymous gift to Public Invention. I don’t know who you are or why you chose to remain anonymous, but I respect your wishes. Your gift expresses confidence in the ability of our society to improve itself by using one of our most powerful tools—technological innovation. In
Thank You Note to an Anonymous Donor Read More »
I’ve written this topical piece on the current state of things as I see them in the effort to make open source ventilators. https://medium.com/@RobertLeeRead/the-state-of-open-source-ventilator-projects-as-of-march-21st-1f36bfb608b4
The State of Open Source Ventilator Projects As of March 21st… Read More »
You Don’t Have to be an Engineer to be a Public Inventor Engineering skills are useful in many invention projects, but many of the people already working on Public Invention teams do not have an engineering background. Part of the rationale for Public Invention is that technical developments in the last couple of decades (including
You Can Be a Public Inventor! Read More »
“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
What Makes A Good Public Invention Project? (long form) Read More »
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
The Fuller Scale: A Unit of Humanitarian Invention Impact Read More »
