 |
 |
 |
Inventors Strut Their Stuff At The
Cooper Union
 |
JULY 31ST, 2003
Inventions are being
created in Cooper Square. That's just one of the interesting
things going on at the Cooper Union.
“There's all
sorts of different labs in the building, and students from all
sorts of different disciplines will participate in the various
labs,” says Cooper Union professor Richard Stock.
In a
typical research lab, graduate student Greg Loibl spent more
than a decade on his idea. Now his invention is available in
stores.
“It involves chemical engineering, mechanical
engineering and electrical engineering,” says Loibl. “We also
had some art students work on the project as well.”
The project is now called the Cooper Cooler. It's a
device that chills beverages quickly - just one minute for a
can of soda.
“You can see when you open it it's
perfectly safe to open. It doesn't carbonate or fizz over as
one might expect,” says Loibl.
While Loibl had the
original concept and worked on it for his Master's thesis, it
was really a collaborative effort utilizing graduate and
undergraduate students.
“We involved students in every
step of the way, and that involves teaching the student,
bringing them up to speed, working with them on a new project,
advancing the project slightly, and then getting another
student in and taking it from there,” says Loibl.
After all, Cooper Union is a college.
A huge,
ugly contraption was the first version of the Cooper Cooler.
As Loibl and the other students worked on the device, it
changed shape, its design, and got smaller. But it's not just
for cans.
“For wine it’s easy to use,” says Loibl.
“You just put your wine bottle in and you remove the end cap.”
Because the device was created in a Cooper Union lab,
Cooper Union owns the patent, and Loibl's company has an
exclusive license to the patent worldwide.
“We give
Cooper Union a royalty on every product sold, and it continues
the legacy of Cooper Union, which was founded by the famous
inventor and entrepreneur Peter Cooper,” says Loibl.
So, in a sense, every Cooper Cooler sold helps someone
go to college, since tuition at Cooper Union is free.
“It's a great institution, and we're hopefully going
to inspire other engineers here to do the same thing,” says
Loibl.
“It's got very sound technology, and it's a
very, very neat application of good science, so I think we're
pretty proud of it,” says Stock.
You can find the
Cooper Cooler right now online and at some local merchants. It
will be more widely available before holiday time.
For
more information, visit http://www.coopercooler.com/.
-
Paul Messina | |
|
 |
 |
 Find A Festival
Want to know where the
street festivals are this month? Find out in our Community
Calendar listings. |
|
 NY1 On The Go
Take NY1 News with you
on your browser-equipped PDA or cellphone by using our free NY1 To Go
service. |
|
 Order NY1 Wear Online
Get ready for summer
with NY1's exclusive outerwear items! Order your t-shirt,
baseball cap or beach towel through our Online
Catalogue. |
| |
