Prioritizing Inventions by Community Needs
By: Erin Butts, Kiara Jerez and Sandra Slattery
Interns in the I3 program at Chaffey College have entered into the third week of the invention internship developed in conjunction with Lemelson-MIT. The I3 Internship is funded by a USDOE Title III Grant and is intended to foster innovation and the spirit of invention.
The interns are in the development stage of the program, investigating "problems" or issues and finding meaningful and impactful solutions that could encourage growth in the community.
They are tackling problems such as safety and security, infrastructure, social and energy issues. Each intern presented their ten challenges to their group and voted on which challenges would move forward while the teachers facilitated the process.
The interns are in groups of five while ensuring those of similar academic disciplines were not paired together. They are currently narrowing down their challenges to the top three.
Group 1: Brandon Anaya, Candy Qu, Michael Thomas, Xochitl Escamilia, Khalia Wells.
Group 2: Gamel Johnson, Ken Tang, Manuel Carbajal, Nicholas Charland, Vicente Morales.
The professors introduced the interns to a challenge map which helped organize challenges based on the potential impact to society, and the novelty or urgency of need.
The interns will use interviewing, observational and exploration methods as the deciding factor for which of the three remaining challenges they would like to move forward with.