If you're a young black or latino student plotting your future, do you look up to athletes or entrepreneurs? Entertainers or innovators? On today's Central Standard, we speak with Carroll G. Lamb, executive director and co-founder of The Institute of Black Invention and Technology, which showcases black and latino inventors in a traveling trunk exhibit.
The Institute strives to collect and preserve inventions and innovations pioneered by minorities, then to bring this inspiring information to students. Their goal is getting students to consider education and careers in a STEM field--that is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
Lamb, a kind of renaissance man himself, has worked in human resources management and photography. He and his wife attended a black exposition conference over a decade ago, and while he considered himself knowledgeable about black history, he realized he didn't know much about black inventors. He figured he couldn't be alone, and decided to create the Institute as a way of collecting and preserving their history.
From young inventors' ideas on educational tools to the ubiquitous personal computers, cell phones, and even golf tees that are integral to our everyday lives, The Traveling Trunk Exhibit of African-American and Latino Inventions strives to show minority students that inventors are a part of their history, too.
Here's some of the inventors we'll discuss on today's show:
Young Inventors:
Adrian Lindsey - a basketball carry bag called the All-Sak
Tahira Reid - Double Dutch Automatic Rope Turning Device
Raynece Leader-Thompson - Math-A-Mania. A game for teaching basic mathematics
Joel Williams - Smartbuttons. Helpthe very young determine which shoe is their left or right shoe
Adult Inventors:
Ralph Gilles - Pres. & CEO of Dodge and Sr. VP of Chrysler's Product Design Office. Designer of Chrysler 300
George Franklin Grant - Graduate of Harvard's Dental School. Patented the golf tee in the late 1890s
Donna August - the Newton PDA. First hand held computer
Jesse Russell - considered the godfather of cellular communications. Has more than 75 patents in cellular communications