Innovations Drive Purdue's Industrial Design Department

When microwave ovens first hit the market, users had to perform about 10 steps to get the new invention to bake an Idaho potato.

The latest microwave models accomplish the task with the push of one button, or two at the most.

"It's so much better than it used to be, and that's because someone took time to design that," Steve Visser, an associate professor of industrial design at Purdue University, said during Tuesday's weekly meeting of the Lafayette Rotary Club.

Associated with Purdue's School of Liberal Arts, the industrial design program has about 100 students who generally earn $35,000 to $40,000 in their first jobs. With the training they receive, the Purdue graduates are able to create new and better functioning tools, appliances, furniture and equipment.

Using technology within the department, assistant professor Scott Shim and students Ryan Lightbody and Matt Grossman built a bicycle that won the $15,000 top prize at the 2004 International Bicycle Design Competition in Taiwan.

To assist beginning bike riders, the model they developed has two flexible rear wheels that come together when the bicycle is in motion and separate as it slows to a stop and requires more stability.

"Because it was developed at Purdue, it is the intellectual property of Purdue. I believe there are 12 investors out there bi