Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 20, 1993 TAG: 9310210309
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MICHAEL CSOLLANY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Two graduates of Virginia Tech have parlayed a senior engineering project into a patent, a rare accomplishment for undergraduate work - even rarer when it's achieved without faculty co-sponsorship.
Jane Moler and Greg Moser designed a wireless hinge for portable computers. Then they raced with IBM to see who would get the credit.
Their efforts began when mechanical engineering professors Reginald Mitchiner and Norman Eiss wanted a real problem for their design class. Representatives from IBM suggested the hinge redesign.
Moler said she and her partner looked at the project from different angles and decided to redesign the hinge without wires. The idea was modeled after the wireless electrical connection to helicopter rotors, she said.
The two, who graduated from Tech in 1992, said they worked many late nights with their work spread out on the floor of Moler's living room. Moser said, ``We also took trips to Wal-Mart to play with toys - electronic toys - and tools to get ideas.''
Their final concept: a ring in the hinge that transmits electricity from the computer's base to the screen, maintaining contact whether the screen is open or closed. The design is more compact. It is also less likely to need repair because it does not use wires, which are sometimes pinched by hinges, making a faulty connection.
The two presented their idea to IBM in the final stage of their project.
Moler said she later learned that IBM was seeking a patent with ``drawings which were remarkably similar to ours.''
IBM researchers also had been working on the problem.
It was an IBM executive, said Eiss, who had urged the students to pursue a patent.
Moler and Moser kept comprehensive lab notebooks dating each and every idea, calculation and decision of their project, and the patent board awarded the credit - patent No. 5237488 - to the young scholars in August. Eiss said he is giving out copies of their notebooks to current classes to show that ``good notebooks always prevail.''
The students pursued their patents through Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, which is in the process of trying to find a commercial licensee for the hinge. Royalty revenues will shared by the inventors and the university.
They decided to work with the university because the patent process is often time consuming and costly. Moler said the process can cost between $5,000 and $15,000.
by CNB