How to Invent Something for School

If you invent something in school, you need to make sure you know who the patent will belong to.

It can require a great deal of creativity, innovation and dedication to truly invent something during your studies. Despite this, many people in world-class educational programs achieve it regularly. While some students are even able to invent something during their undergrad years, others will find that they invent something during the course of graduate studies when they are allowed to have more self-direction in their studies. The story of Mark Zuckerberg, inventor of Facebook, resonates when thinking about just how much a college student can achieve with some creativity.

Instructions

1. Come up with a problem that needs solving. This can be a desire that people have that is not being met, or a need that could be met in a more efficient way.

2. Think about and document the products or services that already meet the desire or need that you are targeting. Think about how they fall short of meeting the need, how they do not meet it directly or how it could be met better. Document your brainstorming so that you can refer to your notes later.

3. Start brainstorming ideas. During this phase of the project, there are no bad ideas. Just come up with wild and crazy ideas that you think would meet the need that you are aiming at.

4. Narrow down which ideas are practical. Ask yourself questions about the cost-effectiveness of each, how much they improve on existing alternatives and whether or not they are within your scope to execute.

5. Start designing and testing. This phase of the process will depend entirely on what field you are in. An engineer may have invented something that they can build with his hands, while a computer scientist might invent something that only exists electronically. Once you think you have a viable idea, you need to jump in and start creating prototypes and see if you really have something.

Tips & Warnings

• Always find out what your school's laws and regulations are for anything that you may invent while you are at school. This may be reason for you to limit your inventing while attending school. For example, if you invent anything while attending Purdue, the intellectual rights for that invention belong to the university, not to you. However, you must also realize that while at school, you have access to better resources than you would likely have when in the professional world, which can help you realize your vision. Even though the property will not be yours, the credit to your name and the subsequent rewards in the professional world might make it worth inventing while at school.

References

• Two Little Ducks: The Next Big Thing
• Ten Online: Ideas Vs. Inventions
• Purdue: Guide to Ownership of Intellectual Property

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Star Research Company: Patents Et Al