What'll they think up next?

Necessity might be the mother of invention, but ingenuity and teamwork -- and a little money -- are close relatives, say some of the nation's top college inventors who will be in Portland this week.

The "E-Teams" -- short for Excellence and Entrepreneurship Teams -- are working on inventions ranging from a home water-purification system for developing countries to a medical device that quickly detects acute kidney failure. A team from Portland State University is working on an expandable wheelchair for large patients.

The team members are among 400 inventors, faculty members and industrial mentors expected at the 10th annual conference of the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, which begins Thursday at the Portland Marriott Downtown.

The three-day meeting will culminate in the "March Madness for the Mind," a public exhibition of 15 teams' inventions from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

The exhibition also will feature five "Alumni E-Teams," which already have products on the market. They include Keen Mobility of Portland, a company that emerged from a University of Portland team that developed a shock-absorbing crutch. The company is helping the PSU team with its wheelchair.

Student teams from Summit High School in Bend and Philomath High School will exhibit energy-producing devices they're developing in an inventor program for high schools.

The National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance is a nonprofit organization started and funded by the Portland-based Lemelson Foundation. The late Jerome H. Lemelson, who had more than 500 patents, and his wife, Dorothy, established the foundation to promote invention and entrepreneurship. The foundation moved to Portland three years ago. It's the first time the conference has been held here.

In the past decade, the Massachusetts-based alliance has funded nearly 250 projects that have led to more than 60 new businesses and at least 42 patent applications. More than 200 colleges and research institutions are members of the alliance, which gives grants ranging from $3,000 to $20,000 to about 20 teams each year in a competition that draws 150 applicants.

Alex Do, who is on a team at the University of California at Berkeley that is developing a frost-protection system for vineyards, said the program's guidance and funding helped his group. "It has provided a hands-on, real-life learning experience that really teaches you how to work with others in solving complex problems."

Do, who recently received his degree in mechanical engineering, said the invention needs more work, "but there's definite interest among winemakers about this. We think it will meet a real need."

The aim of the program, says Phil Weilerstein, the organization's executive director, is to give students "an opportunity to develop an idea and take it as far as they can. The objective is really nothing less than changing the way that higher education prepares engineers, scientists and business students to be the inventors and innovators of the next generation."

Richard L. Hill: 503-221-8238; richardhill@news.oregonian.com