Hampshire College

The Lemelson Center sponsors events, speakers, and field trips each semester, and hosts periodic and annual conferences and workshops.

The Lemelson Center also sponsors student excursions including to major design museums in New York City and beyond, regional assitive technology expositions, a local universally-designed house, the Boston Children's Museum and the Boston Children's Hospital Communication Enhancement Center. Speakers have included kinetic sculptors, professional blacksmith artists, athletes with disabilities, fabrication specialists, patent attorneys, a recreational equipment designer, and specialists in the areas of assistive technology and universal design.

Student Invention Showcase

The annual Student Invention Showcase is the capstone event of the academic year when students gather to show the community the work that they have done at the Lemelson Center.  Approximately 30 students gather in the Red Barn with business concept plans, sculptures, furniture, innovative prototypes and more advanced products.  Students display assistive technology and universally designed projects for people with disabilities, sculptures, blacksmithing and woodworking pieces, sustainable designs and electronic devices.  Student are willing to answer questions about their work and are eager to hear feedback about their work.  This event draws area elementary and high school students and educators, parents, community activists, designers, engineers, therapists, artists, and musicians as well as peers and faculty.  Students are always pleased to see the range of work being done at the center and to be recognized for their own achievements. 

* SPARC Lecture Series

This year we are pleased to offer the first of the *SPARC (*Supporting Professional Alumni Returning to Campus) lectures throughout the month of April.  Thursday evenings area alumni will speak about their professional and personal experiences with home ownership issues which include: the process of buying a piece of real estate, gardening/landscaping, creating a small family/community farm, and how to efficently build or renovate a home with green technology.  This series is titled, "No Place Like Home" and is open to the Five College Comunity.

Student/Alumni Day in the Shop

This event is held each year following Spring Break and gathers together students and alumni to reconnect with the Lemelson Center, find out about new events and initiatives and enjoy good company.  This year students and alumni are invited to attend workshops to learn skills and make a series of small projects, some of which will be donated to a local homeless shelter. 

Open House

The Lemelson Center's annual open house party brings together students and faculty from Hampshire and the surrounding Five Colleges as well as inventors and entrepreneurs from the local business community. This event often has a theme and there are always festive foods, drinks, decor, games, and doorprizes. The event takes place early in the fall to lure new students to the shop which is transformed from an inventor's paradise to a festive oasis.

Hampshire College Assistive Technology Forum

For eight years the Lemelson Center hosted a one-day forum in assistive technology that brought together a diverse group of equipment designers, industry experts, people with disabilities, engineers, occupational therapists, physical therapists, students, and educators to encourage discussion of needs and transfer of information and ideas.

The Eighth Annual Forum Assistive Technology, Disability, and FAMILY convened Friday, May 5, 2006.

The conference keynote speaker was Judi Rogers, a disabled mother, activist, equipment designer, author, and parenting specialist at Through the Looking Glass, a national resource center for families living with disabilities. The day also featured hands-on workshops, networking, roundtable discussions, and a student invention showcase.

The Seventh Annual Forum Assistive Technology, Disability, and ADVENTURE convened Friday, May 6, 2005.

The event drew approximately 250 participants throughout the day, to take in the keynote speaker and Olympic panel of athletes, to talk with student project presenters at the Student Invention Showcase, to engage in professional networking, and to participate in a range of afternoon hands-on workshops. The key themes that guided the day included ways in which adaptive equipment creates access to new environments, the influence of sport and society on one another, how communities can strive to create inclusive recreation, how sport can be a tool for social change, and athletes who push limits become revolutionaries.

The Sixth Annual Forum Assistive Technology, Disability, and the ARTS took place Friday, May 7, 2004.

Participants gathered for a day of exploration in performing arts, fine arts, popular culture, and expression through the context of disability and assistive technology.

The Fifth Annual Forum Developing Solutions, Developing Nations convened Friday, May 2, 2003.

Topics of discussion included the growing need for assistive technology worldwide, current initiatives to address those needs, harnessing creativity to improve human living conditions, and how to get involved in locally- based efforts with global impact.

Face of America 2002

Over fourteen hundred bicyclists and hand cyclists gathered at ground zero in New York City where they began a three-day, #two-night, 280-mile journey that concluded at the #Pentagon on September 22.  The event brought together #disabled and able-bodied participants from around the #world to honor the lives of those killed in the #terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The Hampshire College Lemelson Center supported alum Artemis Joukowsky with a vehicle and mechanical team as he rode his electrically assisted trike.   The trike was designed and fabricated at the Lemelson Center by then student Josh Kerson.  

The ride was #an athletic challenge affirming the belief that the #sheer internal will of the human person is what allows #us to accomplish nearly impossible goals despite our #differences.  It was by far the most diverse team WTS #has ever assembled, including athletes from 12 countries, including Israeli and Palestinian athletes. It was the largest contingency of hand cyclists ever assembled for a single sporting event.  Read more articles about the Face of America 2002 Ride

United Nations Photo Exhibit “Raising the Bar”

A photographic exhibition entitled “Raising the Bar:  New Horizons in Disability Sports” opened in the North-East Gallery of the General Assembly Visitors’ Lobby at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, 23 March 2005.  The exhibit, based on the book by Artemis Joukowsky, was an intimate, visually rich portrayal of the international para-athletic community, featuring the work of 10 international photographers and 30 international athletes.  It remained open to the public through 27 April.

Also on display was an electric trike, tandem tricycle, snowboard and sit-ski, representing innovative projects undertaken by students at Hampshire College’s Lemelson Center that address the needs of people with disabilities in the pursuit of sports and recreation. This exhibition was presented in support of the process towards a United Nations Convention on the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities.

Please visit Non Satis Scire Spring/Summer 2005 or No Limits Media for more information about the book and the event.

SEA Conference

Each year the Lemelson Center sends students or recent alumni to the Self Employment in the Arts Conference outside of Chicago to network with other artists, exhibit their work, and attend lectures and workshops.  The mission of SEA is to provide educational resources to help aspiring artists gain the entrepreneurial knowledge and skills needed to establish and maintain a career as an independent artist.

Hampshire College Blacksmithing Meet

Each year as part of the blacksmithing program, the Lemelson Center sponsors a one-day Blacksmithing Meet. Blacksmiths from around northern New England converge at the Lemelson Center for a day of demos, workshops, and project displays. Student blacksmith-enthusiasts from Hampshire and the surrounding Five Colleges meet local metal-pounders, get feedback on their own blacksmithing projects, and participate in the workshops and demos.

Regional Art/Design Museums

Each semester field trips are organized to regional museums to actively foster a learning community engaged in the avant garde of art and technology.  Students have benefited from exploring visits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts.

Grinspoon Entrepreneurship Conference

Each fall Hampshire College students are invited when The Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation (HGCF) Entrepreneurship Initiative presents an Collegiate Entrepreneurship Conference. The conference gives students the opportunity to learn from successful entrepreneurs the appropriate steps to take to start a business, how to turn an idea into reality, and the risks and rewards of business ownership.

Innovative Thinking and Entrepreneurship Summit

Have you always had that urge to start your own business, but need to take the first step? Maybe you have your own company and need strategies to expand your business into the global marketplace? Or is there specific knowledge—such as accessing equity capital, creating a business that reflects your values, and understanding the power of risk taking—that could enhance your business acumen? Then this program is for you.  The Hampshire College Lemelson Center supports this valuable information exchange, networking opportunity, and business resource program. (additional summit information)