Alumni Help Stimulate Student Invention in China

A few years ago, Rossana Lin ’87, Educational Council (EC) regional chair for Beijing, got a note in the mail from EC Director Kim Hunter ’86. The note included a brochure about the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams program. Interested in educational innovation and invention, Rossana and her husband David Lin ’87 talked about how they might introduce the concept to schools where they live in Beijing.

The initial efforts met with some resistance. “The focus on exams and traditional learning is so strong,” said Rossana, “that school leaders sometimes suppress innovation and creativity. We were looking for a principal and teachers who were willing to try a program that was outside the norm.”

The Lins found two willing schools—Beijing No. 4 High School in Beijing and Shenzhen Middle School, a provincial high school a day’s trip from the capital. David accompanied five teachers from the two schools to last year’s Lemelson-MIT EurekaFest, a multi-day celebration of invention on MIT’s campus. They also attended the Science and Engineering Program for Teachers (SEPT), a week-long program designed to show teachers the latest developments in biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, technology, and engineering and spark a lifelong interest in science among their students. The teachers returned to China with the motivation to try invention with their students and create InvenTeams to participate in EurekaFest.

And they did. At this year's EurekaFest, June 16-18, the two teams were eager to describe their inventions. Students from Beijing No. 4 demonstrated their earthquake resistant student desk, which can transform into a student shelter at the touch of a button when an earthquake hits. Their team was sponsored by Microsoft Asia-Pacific Research and Development Group, where David Lin works as director of operations. The team from Shenzhen, sponsored by Tencent, presented their taxi cab dispatching system that uses GPS and Google maps to locate and match a customer and the nearest taxi. This team benefited from Rossana's network of educational counselors. Kent Xu MBA ’08 and Zhenwei Zhao SM ’02 supported the team as mentors, with Zhao driving over an hour for the team’s weekly meetings.

“The participation of international schools adds a great deal to the EurekaFest and the InvenTeams program,” said Joshua Schuler SM ’00, executive director of the Lemelson-MIT program. “We are excited by the Lins engagement, and we’re hoping that their initiative will be a model for other international alumni.” In addition to the Chinese teams, 13 U.S. schools participated in EurekaFest, presenting inventions that ranged from a pressure-sensitive grip for writing utensils to a solar-powered oil recovery center that collects and cleans waste kitchen oil.

So what really motivated the Lins to dedicate so much time to developing the InvenTeams?

“I think as an MIT alum I have a certain sense of idealism,” said Rossana. “I saw that there was a problem in developing innovation and invention creativity among Chinese students, and seeing a problem, I just wanted to tackle it.”

David agrees. “Solving problems and wanting to have an impact on the world is just part of the DNA of an MIT alumnus.” Not surprisingly, the Lin’s have passed on some of that DNA to their oldest son Caleb, who was recently admitted to MIT.