News

Inventive minds

Students find their creativity can pay
off with grants

DENVER – Michael Hooten’s knees
were killing him after a day of
snowboarding at Eldora resort near
Boulder, his feet strapped
uncomfortably into the bindings.

By COLLEEN LONG of the
Associated Press Missoulian

Sitting in his Invention and Innovation
class at the University of Colorado,
Hooten came up with a solution: an
adapter that fits between the binding
and the board and can rotate 360
degrees, allowing snowboarders to
switch the angle of their feet on the
slopes.

"For beginners, being able to change
the angle of the binding helps to
learn what’s most comfortable for
you," Hooten said. "For more advanced snowboarders, you can set bindings according to speed or
freestyle, depending on what you want to do."

Hooten, 20, and partners Jason Hawley, 29, Lisa Rogers, 19, and Brian Gleeson, 21, built a plastic
prototype for the class in a machine shop on the Boulder campus. It took them about three weeks to
build, at a cost of about $56.

Class instructor Lawrence Carlson said students must pay for their materials in developing such
ideas. "We want them to learn fiscal responsibility is part of what it takes to really market and
commercialize an idea," he said.

But the investment paid off when they were awarded an $11,970 grant from the National Collegiate
Inventor and Innovators Alliance to perfect and attempt to patent the adapter, called the Rota-Ride.
Ultimately, they hope to license it to a snowboard company.

The alliance awards approximately 40 grants a year worth as much as $50,000 apiece. Students
nationwide apply for grants for their inventions and most try to patent their work. The alliance is
funded by The Lemelson Foundation, the family foundation of the late inventor Jerome Lemelson.

Phil Weilerstein, spokesman for the Hadley, Mass.-based nonprofit alliance, said about 25 percent of
the groups awarded grants receive patents.

"The patent is an important educational experience, but the more important issue is whether they can
successfully commercialize their inventions," he said. "Learning the process is what matters."

The Colorado students plan to spend the grant money trying new materials, developing a stronger
latch and testing the adapter on the slopes.

"We’re going to take the process slow. The applications are long, and consulting with a patent
attorney will take time, and most of us have two years of school left," Hooten said. "If it works, I could
pay for my college education."

Alex Birch, product manager for bindings at Burton Snowboards, said the adapter may be a good
idea, but adding more weight to a snowboard goes against mainstream manufacturing. The adapter
weighs slightly less than 3 pounds, so it would boost a snowboard from an average of about 12
pounds to about 15 pounds.

"We’re striving to make boards lighter every year," Birch said. "Simple is better, and if you’re tired
after two runs because your board is too heavy, you have a problem."

The Burlington, Vt.-based company, is the top producer of snowboards and holds many of the
patents related to the sport.

Birch said there could be a market for the adapter among beginning snowboarders.

"Other products that allow boarders to disconnect a binding for the chairlift have been marketed
before," he said. "But, if you start with the right idea and for the right reasons, you can make it work."

On The Net:

National Collegiate Inventor and Innovators Alliance: http://www.nciia.org

JackHeat: http://www.jackheat.com

Burton Snowboards: http://www.burton.com

http://missoulian.com/display/inn_business/biz01.txt

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