Kealakehe High School educator Justin Brown (wearing glasses, seventh from left) stands with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and students/mentors from Kealakehe’s “Tiki Techs” Robotics Team.
Justin Brown, career and technical education coordinator at Kealakehe High School, has received a Lemelson-MIT Excite Award following his participation in an invention education opportunity at MIT’s annual EurekaFest in June 2017.
The annual award is given to educators who are selected as finalists to receive a Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam grant. InvenTeam consists of a $10,000 award to support and inspire young inventors to pursue careers in the invention industry.
“I hope to share the experience and insights with all of my students as we try to solve real problems for our local community utilizing radical collaboration, 21st century tools, and rigorous market analysis,” said Justin in a Hawaii Department of Education news release.
As the lead mentor for Kealakehe High School’s robotics program, Justin plays a key roll in the ongoing PISCES Moon RIDERS (Research Investigation Dust Expulsion Removal Systems) project. The student-designed lunar flight experiment in partnership with NASA is awaiting a launch vehicle to fly to the Moon.