About Change Your Game / Cambia Tu Juego
The Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation presents Change Your Game/ Cambia tu juego.
The 3,500-square-foot, long-term interactive exhibition in the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Hall of Invention at the National Museum of American History explores the central role of invention and technology in sports from an unexpected perspective: who invents for sports and why? The bilingual exhibition spotlights how the motivations of diverse inventors, athletes and technologists have changed how we play historical and contemporary sports, with the additional intention of empowering visitors to identify themselves as inventive problem solvers who can become "game changers" in their daily lives.
Change Your Game includes over 60 sports technology inventions (objects from the nation’s collections) across six areas of exploration: a Starting Line that introduces the exhibition, four Motivation Zones, each highlighting a core motivation for invention in sports—achieving a Competitive Edge, promoting Health and Safety, facilitating Fairness and Accuracy, and enhancing the Fun and Accessibility of sports to diverse participants—and finally, an End Zone. Several hands-on, interactive activities throughout the exhibition challenge visitors to engage directly and creatively in the inventive process while considering the broader impacts of those innovations, both inside and outside sports. The exhibition and its activities aim to provide people of all ages the opportunity to learn STEM-related content and skills as well as practice twenty-first-century skills such as collaboration, creativity, problem-solving, risk-taking, and critical thinking, which support the development of inventiveness.
Upcoming Events
All events will be held in-person at the National Museum of American History.
March 27 – Innovative Lives: Shawn Springs. 4:00-5:15 p.m.
The Lemelson Center and InventEd will present a conversation with Shawn Springs, former NFL player and the CEO and Founder of Windpact, a Software and Technology company. After surviving a serious car crash, Spring was inspired to found Windpact, convinced that car safety technologies could protect athletes. Working to improve the technology for helmets, Windpact invented Crash Cloud technology to protect the brain by absorbing collision energy. The technology is now used in sports, the military, construction, and automotive industries.
April 3 – Innovative Lives: Arielle Rausin and coach Adam Bleakney. 3:00-4:15 p.m.
In conjunction with the recently opened exhibition “Change Your Game/Cambia tu juego” the Lemelson Center will present a conversation with Arielle Rausin and coach Adam Bleakney to explore how invention and technology in sports can make the difference between victory and defeat. Rausin, paralyzed at age 10 in a car accident, joined the University of Illinois' business school and its wheelchair track team. Working with her coach, Paralympian Adam Bleakney, Rausin used 3-D printing to make custom gloves for wheelchair racers as part of a special college class assignment. In 2026 she founded Ingenium Manufacturing, a company that produces wheelchair racing gloves.
May 1 – Innovative Lives: Doug DeAngelis. 6:00 – 7:15 p.m.
Join the Lemelson Center for an evening with Doug DeAngelis, inventor of the FinishLynx photo finish camera. With the camera, DeAngelis offered reliable, near-instant race results—a huge improvement over slow, unreliable film-based systems. DeAngelis’s 1992 digital photo finish camera is on view in “Change Your Game.”
June – Innovative Lives: speaker TBA. 6:00 – 7:15 p.m.
Special Thanks
The Lemelson Center and the National Museum of American History gratefully acknowledge the generous donors whose support made this exhibition possible:
U.S. National Science Foundation
United States Patent & Trademark Office
The Lemelson Foundation
NIKE
Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
The Shō Foundation
ConocoPhillips
The Hopper-Dean Family Fund
Press Kit
All media inquiries should be directed to Laura Havel, Communications Manager, at havell@si.edu
For the digital press kit, visit https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/hopg7kxiaj8o187s4vvry/h?rlkey=r9b6qfwwebdlc2i4crj5g233j&dl=0