Tyler Clites

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Agonist-antagonist Myoneural Interface (AMI) and Pollex Grasp
Lemelson-MIT Student Prize
Graduate Winner

Tyler Clites, a PhD candidate in the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, says his fascination with invention began when he was a child. Long before he discovered that an engineer was anything other than someone who drove a train, he remembers proudly proclaiming, “I want to be an inventor when I grow up!” Every summer throughout his childhood in rural Dunbarton, New Hampshire, he attended Camp Invention, where he learned to design and prototype original solutions to common problems. Some of his first inventions included an automated egg cracker and a remote-controlled submarine for retrieving items that fell into a pool. Inspired and excited by what he learned at this summer camp, he went on to start an informal “inventor’s club” at his elementary school.