by Dan Shrensky
The author is a former staff writer with WVU News and Information
Services.
Some come with a dream, others need a wake-up call. Some come with a vision, others stumble blindly. Dan Tryon sees them all. As manager of WVU's Discovery Lab, he coaches would-be Edisons through the process of invention. It's no easy task sifting through vague and way-out notions to find ideas that may prove golden, but Tryon is always eager to en. "You never know what's coming through the door next," he says.
On average, Tryon sees about 150 inventors each year. Someone
looking for advice on how to get a patent. Someone with a sketch
or a model of a product who's looking for feedback. Someone who
wants to learn about creating a marketing plan. Someone with nothing
more than a vague idea.
"I'd say about 40 percent of the ideas I en to have serious possibilities, but I'll at least en to anyone," he says. "A lot of them are people who are having a problem with something at their job and they come up with a way to simplify it that they think might be useful to others. Some people specialize in inventions that relate to a hobby or an interest, such as a fisherman looking for a better way to catch bass. There's also a certain amount of tangible widgets, gizmos, and other products that people feel other people would want."
Although most inventors contact Tryon by phone or mail, he plays host to school children several times a month in what he describes as a "half classroom, half mad scientist's lab" in the WVU Engineering Research Building.
Tryon meets with 1,500-2,000 school children a year, whether in the lab or on visits "to every corner of the state," he says. A former public school teacher in upstate New York, Tryon helps schools form inventors clubs or hold "invention conventions."
These students could be future Discovery Lab clients.
Although his is primarily a word-of-mouth service built on reputation, many of Tryon's contacts are funneled through WVU's Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and Development (CESD), which funds the lab. Created in 1981 as a vehicle for the University to become more directly involved in West Virginia's economic growth, CESD specializes in providing businesses with training materials and workforce development strategies. The Discovery Lab was opened in 1987 as an extension of CESD, and Tryon came aboard in 1995. Industrial Engineering Professor Jack Byrd, Jr., serves as CESD's executive director.
Although companies pay for CESD services, there is no charge for Tryon's guidance and no royalties are collected from sales of successful products invented with Discovery Lab assistance.
That's not to say there are not rewards.
"I got a call from a coal miner who had been laid off," Tryon says. "He built a hand tool for removing the cutting bit off a drill and he wanted to know if it was patentable. Eventually, he started making them and sold them door to door; then, he built a machine shop and mass-produced them. Now he owns his own business with his daughter and son. He said he came up with the invention not to get rich, but to show his daughter that he was more than just a coal miner."
Thanks to a WVU Discovery Lab partnership, Little Leaguers no longer need to hide from fly balls.
Last year, WVU teamed with a major sporting goods manufacturer to create a new product that's showing up on ball fields nationwide this summer. The model for the First-Up fielder's glove was built at WVU in a joint effort with Worth Inc., a baseball and softball equipment company based in Tullahoma, Tennessee.
The story starts with Tim Lord, a WVU engineering and business graduate (BS '90, MBA '91) who works as Worth's marketing manager.
Lord wanted to create a "training glove"
for younger baseball and softball players-children ages 5 to 7-as
an alternative to the ill-fitting, too-heavy, unforgivingly stiff
mitts young players have traditionally worn.
He brought that idea to WVU, specifically to Jack Byrd, his former engineering professor.
"I knew Dr. Byrd was a creative person and had a lot of contact with other creative people. So, I thought he'd have some good ideas," Lord says.
Byrd forwarded his and Lord's ideas to Dan Tryon at the WVU Discovery Lab, who formed a design team with engineering student Juan Zayas.
"Our initial thinking was about the limitations of children's hands," Byrd says. "They couldn't get the glove to close around the ball because the glove was too heavy and their fingers weren't strong enough. They were using the glove as a shield, not as a fielding device."
To build a model for the First-Up, the design team tore apart gloves to examine their inner workings. Research included photocopying kids' hands, studying children's gloves and mittens, and testing the findings on grade-schoolers.
Zayas's input was particularly helpful. A native of the Dominican Republic, where baseball is a popular sport, he had prior experience in fashioning homemade gloves and balls.
Ultimately, the team designed a glove that went on sale in November 1997. It retails for around $25.
The First-Up glove is made of a lightweight synthetic material, and is engineered to help young ball players use the strength they have. Advertised as "the first glove pattern designed for a small hand," it also has an extra-wide pocket.
"It's very different from any glove ever made," Lord says. "It's a great tool for children who are just learning to catch."
—Dan Shrensky