Tech Topics - Fall 2007 - (Page 29)

Burdell&Friends Ramblin’ Roll 1940s Kurt E. Shuler, Chem 42, retired from the University of California, San Diego, in 1991 after a 33-year career as a chemistry professor. In 2006, the university’s department of chemistry and biochemistry endowed a chair and distinguished professorship in physical chemistry in his name. Shuler lives in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. Dream Within Grasp By Kimberly Link-Wills Inventors believe Claw will catch on with consumers A 1950s George Cates, IE 59, of Memphis, Tenn., has been named to the University of Tennessee board of trustees by Gov. Phil Bredesen. Cates retired as founder, CEO and chairman of the Cates Co. He also has served with Memphis Light, Gas and Water, as president of the Memphis Rotary Club and Memphis Botanical Gardens and as vice chairman of the Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority. J. Michael Duncan, CE 59, MS CE 62, distinguished professor of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, was named distinguished professor emeritus by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors in June. 1960s Charles Guffey, ChE 63, has been elected to serve a twoyear term on the city council of West University Place, an independent city of 14,000 residents in metropolitan Houston. Guffey operates a natural gas consulting business part time. Randall Macon, IM 69, pastor of education at Wallace Memorial Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., received a doctor of ministry degree in May from the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth from Southern Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Albert P. Massey III, IM 66, has completed his first twoyear term serving on the Florida Commission on Ethics as vice chair. Massey is an attorney with Massey, Coican & Schuster in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. merica hasn’t seen the last of the Claw. The bicycle storage mechanism invented and developed by Tech alums David Moeller and Craig Forest failed to advance in the semifinal round of the television show “American Inventor” but that doesn’t mean the Claw won’t make it onto store shelves — and garage ceilings. “ABC and Fremantle Media have a three-month option to license the product,” said Moeller, ME 02. “Either they are going to move forward with it or we’re going to go forward with it.” Moeller and Forest, ME 01, won the New York City regional leg of the competition and, along with five other semifinalists, were flown to Los Angeles and given $50,000 and one month to ready their products for market. The Claw, a replacement for a ceiling or wall hook, latches onto a bike tire with just a vertical motion depressing a central plunger. It releases the bike in the same manner. The six inventions were whittled to three in the semifinal round. The Claw was beaten out by a single mother’s backless bra, a firefighter’s device to douse burning Christmas trees and a schoolteacher’s remote-control vehicle kit for kids. The final decision was left to viewers, with the winner, the Guardian Angel, awarded $1 million. Forest first scratched the surface of the Claw’s potential when he came up with the idea during his last semester at Georgia Tech. “Before this I hung my bikes from hooks right over my bed. Every night as I was falling asleep I was looking up at the hooks and the bikes hanging,” he said. “I brought the idea to my senior design group. We made a clunky version but it didn’t really work very well. We got the grade and forgot about it.” Moeller, who had met Forest through a mutual friend, didn’t forget about it. Moeller had studied the design group’s Web page when he was working on his own project. He remembered the device a couple of years later when ps their pro t carry law. r Fores ajo the C unveil Laura M City to ller and w York id Moe Ne Dav n site in to right, auditio st, left ventor” ig Fore Cra can In “Ameri Moeller had to call the Wall Street into the he was touring a manufacturing plant in China as an employee of GE Supply’s global sourcing team. “For some reason the thought came to mind, ‘These guys could probably make that bicycle rack Craig had been working on.’ I gave him a call and said, ‘I’m thinking about this and I’ve got an idea. Let’s make some changes to it. Let’s do a rotary design,’” Moeller said. “We began the discussions and Craig started cranking through prototype after prototype. We got up to full capacity when I started business school at Harvard and Craig was at MIT. Craig was working on the design and the production aspects. I was doing market estimates and putting together a business plan,” Moeller said. Moeller is starting his second year of business school this fall. Forest, who earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering at MIT this spring, will be conducting postdoctoral genetics research at Harvard. On a whim, they auditioned for “American Inventor” this past winter. In late May, they learned they had won the New York City round of competition. With the awarding of the $50,000 check came news that they would be heading for California in two days. “My wife (Laura Major Forest, IE 02) and I were planning a big vacation to France. My family was coming to MIT for my graduation,” Forest said. “We canceled the trip to France, the graduation ceremony, everything.” firm he had agreed to work for as a summer intern and arrange to shorten his 10-week internship to four. “Winning was really making it to L.A., getting the exposure and getting the $50,000,” of which about $25,000 went to industrial design and $8,000 to packaging and the Claw logo, Moeller said. Forest said the month in California gave them the opportunity to fine-tune their product. “We built a machine to test the Claw over and over and over again. It worked over 50,000 times. That’s when we stopped the test. “We actually took this thing from a clunky $1,000 engineering prototype to a $40 consumer product with a package, with a logo, with a marketing plan — in just a month,” Forest said. They have designed three versions of the Claw. The $40 aluminum one is geared toward sale in bike shops. A $20 Claw would be sold at discount retailers and a $10 version would be available in lawn and garden departments. Forest said the pair’s commitment to philanthropy wasn’t broadcast on the show. “Dave and I are so lucky to have had all these opportunities in life. We’ve committed that 10 percent of the profits of the company are going to go to two charities: the Science Club for Girls in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Global Achievers in Georgia. On the back of our package it has our pledge to do that.” They hope those packages will be on store shelves this holiday season. TECHTOPICS | FALL 2007 29

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Contents Mail Call Alumni House Historic Renovation 007 Buzz Bash Dazzling Daylilies Living History Cover Story: Key to the City The Hill Tapping Technology Robotics Rivalry No Easy Ride Giving Back Balancing Act Student Life Burdell & Friends Epic Story of Heroism Yellow Jackets Very Good Team Passport to Retirement Real World

Tech Topics - Fall 2007

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