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Technology students flex creativity |
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Thursday, 01 March 2007 |
Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series on Appalachian’s technology department.
by LAUREN LAWSON
News Reporter
Unless you stepped into the bustling studios of Appalachian State University’s department of technology, it would be hard to imagine the cutting-edge technology created by students on campus.
“Industrial design is sort of universal design, whereby we create ideas and creations for everyone,” Banks Talley, assistant professor of technology, said.
Industrial design entails “everything from new designs for cars,
furniture, tools - even adaptive clothing like the camel bag,” he said.
Many ideas and designs have been imagined, drawn, conceptualized and even made in the classrooms of Kerr Scott Hall.
Bryce P. Katsahnias, a junior industrial design major, had an idea he thought would help in the medical field.
“I came up with a design for a stretcher that folds up so that it’s
easier to store and easier to transport with hinges to secure it when
stretched out,” Katsahnias said.
The idea is currently in the process of applying for a patent.
“We had to meet with university lawyers, fill out paperwork, then
resubmit the paperwork for lawyers to approve, which is where we are
right now,” he said.
Applying for a patent costs about $10,000, which Appalachian pays for if the patent is approved.
If any profits result from Katsahnias’s invention, 50 percent will go
to Appalachian, 5 percent will go to his professor and 45 percent will
go to him.
“Industrial design is a very open-ended field,” Brent C. Rivelle, a senior graphic arts and imaging technology major, said.
A few years ago, a local restaurant’s chef contacted Appalachian’s
technology department explaining the restrictions and problems he had
associated with his daily uniform.
Restrictions included the uniform’s lack of “comfort, aeration, stain repellant and style,” Talley said.
Talley brought the problem to his students and they spent a good part of their semester working on a new chef uniform design.
A student even went as far as to contact the company that designed the
micro technology that goes into materials like those used to make
Docker’s stain-defender pants.
“The company sent him a significant amount of the material for free to create the outfit,” Talley said.
The new design fixed all the problems that the chef had brought to the department, but has not yet been patented.
Another idea hoping to be patented is a weed whacker created in previous years.
The student’s professor bought a weed whacker, took it apart to use the
motor, molded the plastic himself and created a tool that is now
hanging from the ceiling of their studio.
Students also work with design firms for internships.
“I worked for Human Centric in Cary. They designed the new Dell
speakers,” Corey D. Daniels, senior industrial design major, said.
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