California Invention Convention is an initiative to bring invention education into California schools and to celebrate the young inventors with a state-wide event.
Our first California Invention Convention was held April, 2017 in Santa Cruz with 55 young inventors attending and eight top inventors chosen to attend the national event. We have continued to grow the program — training new teachers and welcoming new schools into the program. In 2020-21, over 4,500 student went through the program and 200 were chosen to represent their school or afterschool program by participating in the (virtual) 2021 California Invention Convention sponsored by Maxim Integrated.
Schools from around the state have trained teachers in the program -from Mount Shasta to San Diego and points in-between. Over 6,000 K-12 students are participating in the program for school year 2021-22. Our growth in Southern California in particular has been such that there wasa Regional California Invention Convention this year sponsored by the Torrance Unified School Distriact
California Invention Convention is a 501(c)3 and has a tax-exempt EIN. In 2022,we announced an official agreementt allows the Lemelson-MIT Program (LMIT) to be the affiliate responsible for the California Invention Convention (CAIC).
Lemelson-MIT is now the state affiliate for the California Invention Convention with The Henry Ford in Dearborn, MI as part of the Global Affiates program which provides support and resources. Winners from the California Invention Convention are eligible to attend the U.S. Nationals Invention Convention and if selected, to compete in the Global Invention Convention..