Engineers are responsible for many of today’s most iconic innovations, including Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse and the Wright Brothers, as well as Henry Ford and Henry Ford.
Did you know that each of these great engineers also did other things to achieve success? They created great companies to help realize the potential of their engineering inventions.
The great American tradition of engineers-as-entrepreneurs continues today. Young, ambitious visionaries with great ideas are still emerging. They have the savvy and drive to bring their ideas to life. Sometimes, they come up with a new way to improve one aspect of our lives that we don’t see every day. Sometimes, they dream of making life easier for people living in remote or less fortunate parts of the globe. Sometimes, they are trying to make modern life easier and more sustainable for all.
Ecovative Design LLC in Green Island, N.Y. is an excellent example of this legacy still in operation. Eben Bayer, Gavin McIntyre and Gavin McIntyre founded Ecovative in 2006. They met during an Inventor’s Studio Course at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy N.Y. where they created and patented a mushroom-based insulation called Greensulate. This material uses agricultural waste and the growth characteristics of mushrooms to grow packing material that works like traditional Styrofoam, but biodegrades easily.
Another leading engineer-entrepreneur today is Amos Winter, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Winter is the inventor and creator of Leveraged Freedom Chair. It’s an innovative design improvement on traditional wheelchairs that uses levers and readily available bike parts to overcome problems that prevent traditional wheelchairs from being successful in the unpaved and hilly regions of the developing globe.
What unites young visionaries such as Bayer, McIntyre, and Winter is their brilliance, ambition, and drive?
All three had one thing in common. They received an early boost from the Innovation Showcase. Sponsored by ASME, the American Society for Mechanical Engineers, the iShow is a competition for early-career engineer-entrepreneurs from all over the world. Bayer, McIntyre, and Winter are more than brilliant; they’re iShow winners.
Visit this site for more information www.asme.org.
