Is it possible to learn how to invent? I think it is, and so I started a program where college students can learn just that.

At the IIT Invention Center, students learn how to invent by actually developing inventions in a studio setting shamelessly lifted from the Fine Arts. Within one semester, each student must develop two inventions (a main invention, plus a warmup), complete with patent application and working prototype, plus a short business plan for the main invention.

And they do it!

A lot of this has been written in a paper, which was published in the International Journal of Engineering Education, available here (pdf format). You can also find more information in the webpage of the IIT Invention Center.