Whiteboard
Albert Stallion invented whiteboards while working at Alliance in the 1960s. Alliance (now known as PolyVision) produced enameled steel for architectural cladding, but Stallion noted it could also potentially be used as a writing surface. Stallion later left Alliance to form his own whiteboard production company, MagiBoards.
RoughRider wheelchair
The earliest recorded history of a wheelchair was inscribed in stone on a Chinese Sarcophagus in the 6th century A.D. There have been many variations on the basic design since then but standard features always included rear wheels, front caster wheels, footrests, side frames and seating features. Until recently wheelchairs were designed for relatively smooth surfaces and paved streets and were not designed for rugged environments. Thirty years ago, Ralf Hotchkiss, an engineer with paraplegia and a frequent traveler to developing countries, saw the need for a high quality and rugged chair that could withstand conditions in rough terrain. He began a thirty year process of collaborative design using locally available parts with a cost low enough to be affordable to disabled persons in developing regions. For many years, Ralf and a team would travel to small machine shops in developing countries to teach the technical skills necessary for local production of the RoughRider model. Several of these shops are developing to scale in parts of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the former Soviet Union.