When Lightning Struck, Innovation Didn’t Stall

Dr. Dan Meier was working under a tight deadline to develop electronics test boards for the relaunch of a handheld gluten sensor. The production test sets would play a critical role in ensuring the circuitry functioned properly before devices reached customers. Then lightning struck — literally — at his property.

“It took out my primary computer and my CAD licenses,” Meier says. “We only had about six to eight weeks to create this entire test set.”

Meier, a retired electrical engineer, continues to take on consulting projects through Meier Labs. For this effort, a product development firm, Prodct.dev, brought him in for his electronics design expertise.

With his primary design tools suddenly offline, he turned to a long-trusted partner: Rose-Hulman Ventures. “I’ve worked with Ventures since they started back in 1999,” he says. “My projects were some of the very first developed there. I knew they’d be able to help.”

Work began immediately. Ventures engineers and students collaborated on test board layouts, flex cable designs and assembly. Together, the team completed the production test sets on schedule, supporting the device’s successful return to market.

“It really highlights what networking looks like,” Meier says. “Because we already knew one another, we were able to form a team in record time. It was a lot of fun.”

He says he has always enjoyed working with Ventures students.

“They have a team of professional engineers, and you work alongside students,” says Meier, who lives outside Greenwood, Indiana. “It creates a great environment for helping early-stage products become real.”

During the many projects he’s completed with Ventures, he often flies his plane into Terre Haute. “It certainly beats dealing with traffic on I-70.”