How to be a technology innovator: Meredith Perry at TEDxNashville

Meredith Perry is the Founder and CEO of uBeam, a company that hopes to bring space age wireless charging technology to your cell phone and other wireless devices. But inventing turned out to be Meredith's passion, creating a device that won Penn's student invention competition and propelling her into the world of business and tech.

(Applause)

How's everybody doing?

Are you as nervous as me?

Probably not.

So today I'm going to
talk to you about

how to be a technology
innovator without

an engineering degree or Asperger's.

If you look at something
from one angle long enough

it becomes very difficult to see it
from a different perspective.

Check out this picture.
This is a burr.

It's one of those prickly
plants that gets stuck to

your clothes when
you're walking outside.

But what if you could look at
the burr and think of Velcro?

The burr was the inspiration
for the creation of Velcro.

I try to think like this whenever
I learn about a new technology,

or about how anything
in the world works.

How can one thing,

one technology be applied
to something else in the world?

An example is a while back
I learned about a new

waterproof film for electronics.

And I applied this exercise.

Where else in the world
might a waterproof film be useful?

Then I realized, if you could stick
a waterproof film into shampoo,

you could eliminate umbrellas.

Now, I have no idea if
this is scientifically plausible

but it seems like a cool idea
and it's worth exploring, right?

If you open your mind you can
come up with really creative ideas

by connecting objects and
technologies that on the surface

seemingly have nothing
to do with each other.

Here's another example.
This is the Breathe Right nasal strip.

This was created by a
Disney Imagineer, not a doctor.

And one night he went to sleep
and his nose was stuffy

and he realized that if you
lift the skin on your nose

you can breath clearly.

And so he invented
a strip that does just that

and the result is
a multimillion-dollar product.

Space elevators,
energy derived from water,

food that is synthesized from
boxes of carbon and oxygen.

These kind of all seem like crazy ideas,

but maybe these ideas just
haven't been fully explored yet.

We live in a world where
we are divided by skill set

according to our
educational backgrounds

and the letters next to
our names like PhD and MD.

These people are considered
the experts in their fields.

And so naturally one would
assume that the people

that know the most about their fields

will be the innovators
within their fields.

And often times they are.

But these people are also hindered
sometimes because they know too much.

They've been trained
to think in a certain way

and so their knowledge
and expertise in a field

is thus narrowly tied
to their own experiences

and to what they've been taught.

And in this way people are
sometimes trained to think

inside of the box.

Experts often look at problems
from the same viewpoint

that it becomes
almost impossible for them

to see it from
a different perspective.

And in fact it creates
a cognitive dissonance or

a discomfort in all of us
when we're forced

to view things in a way
in which we are not used to.

So in other words,
by virtue of having perspective,

we lack perspective.

And this phenomenon greatly hinders

technological innovation and creativity.

And so it's no coincidence
that most great discoveries

were made by people
early in their careers.

It's no coincidence that
most Nobel Prize winners

came up with their
groundbreaking research

during or soon after their graduate studies.

And yet these people are
often not awarded their big prizes

until decades after their research.

Until the implications of
their research are in common use.

So I propose that it's the people
who don't look at new fields

with a jaded eye, who are not
tied to five, ten, twenty years

of training who are able
to come in and look at a problem

from an entirely fresh perspective.

They can come in with
a fresh way of looking at problems

departing from the traditional approaches

that have been followed by the experts.

And without constraints
of an ingrained framework

they can look at problems
without decades of prejudice,

and be able to come
up with big connections

between objects and
technologies that seemingly

have nothing to do with each other.

So last October while I was
an undergraduate at Penn

I came up with a way
to wirelessly transmit power

through the air in just two days.

Just by thinking about
the problem differently

and by asking a lot of questions.

I was not an engineer
and I did not have Asperger's.

My experience has shown me
that there is a lot

of creativity in this world
that is not being harnessed

because people don't have
the right letters next to their names.

And because people are
too afraid to push forward

their ideas that can't possibly work
because they thought of it.

When I looked at my wireless laptop
with a 15-foot wire

dangling from its power socket

I wondered
how can I get rid of that cord?

How could I beam
energy to my computer

so that I didn't have to
plug it in to charge it?

How could I make
charging more like Wi-Fi?

I began by thinking about objects

that beamed energy through the air.

I asked really simple questions.

Things that people in this room
probably already know.

Like,
how do remote controls work?

How do lasers work?
How does Wi-Fi work?

I googled the wireless
power landscape

and realized that there were
a few viable solutions.

But each solution had
its own set of problems

that would get in the way
of its commercialization.

So I realized that you
could beam the entire

electromagnetic spectrum,
which is basically everything

from radio waves to gamma waves.

But the right half of the spectrum
was too dangerous to beam.

You know, you wouldn't want
X-rays whizzing through your body

just to be able to charge your cell phone.

And the left half of the spectrum
was either too inefficient

or too tightly regulated by the government.

So I had to approach the problem creatively.

I looked into harnessing
the energy from vibrations

that constantly surround us like
the road bumps you feel in your car.

But how could my electronic devices
harness this energy?

I knew that no one would want to stick
a shaker to the back of their phone

or stick bulky energy
harvesting plates in their shoes.

So I had to figure out a way
to send vibrations through the air.

And then I realized sound does that.

Sound travels through the air
by vibrating air particles

and because sound is a form of energy,

you can harness
the vibrational energy of sound.

So I started doing research on ultrasound

because it was too high in frequency
for you to be able to hear it.

And in my research
I learned that ultrasound

was used to create acoustic weapons.

So I figured that if there was
enough energy from ultrasound

to create a bomb, you could probably
charge your cell phone with it.

So how does a Paleobiology major at Penn

learn how to convert
ultrasound into electricity?

Well, I literally just googled it.
And I found a --

(Laughter) (Applause)

And I found a material that did just that.

So this is less than 48 hours after

the original idea
of creating wireless power.

Ultrasonic wireless power.
It seemed like an awesome idea,

but I figured that if I thought of it
there was no way it could work.

Why hadn't somebody else
thought of it before?

Why hadn't the ultrasound expert
thought of it before?

I didn't know enough about the technology
to determine if it could work or not.

And I was a little hesitant
to tell any real engineers about it.

Because honestly, I thought
they would laugh at me.

I thought they would think I was stupid.

But about a week or so later I decided

to tell my physics professor
about the idea.

And when I did,
he told me that it wouldn't work.

That there was no way
that I could get enough energy

out of ultrasound to be able
to charge a cell phone.

I was crushed, but I kept thinking
about that acoustic bomb.

I knew that I needed to do more research,

so I read paper after paper on ultrasound
and I devised the basic system.

I tried to teach myself
as much as I possibly could.

I was reading
"Electrical Engineering For Dummies"

and begging professors to teach me
extra concepts after class.

And as outlandish as it sounds,
I decided to submit the idea

to the Penn Invention Competition.

I ordered a few ultrasonic
transmitters and receivers online.

And got an electrical engineering student

to help me wire a few things together.

We were able to prove that you could beam

a tiny amount of power over about an inch.

This was enough to keep me going.

We won the student invention competition.

And a few days later,
I was told that Walt Mossberg,

the senior technology columnist
for the Wall Street Journal

wanted to speak to us.

This was crazy. (Laughter)

He told us that if we could build
a real prototype of this technology

we could demo it
at his annual tech conference.

Now, at the time I didn't know
much about Walt or his D conference.

But I soon learned that this was
the premier tech conference of the year.

That this was where
Steve Jobs debated Bill Gates.

I knew I needed to get to this conference.

But I had absolutely no idea
if I could really build it.

I had one month.
The race was on.

So to make this thing work,
I had to scale it up

from basically what was a tiny little toy
to a decent sized prototype.

Now remember, I was
the idea person, you know.

I could tell you about the science
and how it works,

but I had absolutely no idea
how to wire anything together.

So I found an engineer in Indiana
and I begged him

to help me build this prototype.

I simplified the design
using off the shelf parts.

And we worked together day and night
for two straight weeks over the phone

building this prototype and we finished
it just two days before the conference.

And I got it working only 10 minutes

before I had to demo it for the first time.
(Laughter)

Talk about anxiety.

But it worked and that was so cool.

We beamed energy over three feet
and at about thirty times

the amount of power that we got out

from the initial proof of concept model.

The conference was an enormous success.

But it surprisingly spurred
a lot of anger and criticism

from real engineers.

(Laughter)

They told me that it could
never work on a larger scale,

there was no way you could actually

use ultrasound to charge a cell phone,

that what I was trying to do was impossible.

But I also knew
that no one could really determine

if the technology could work or not.

Because the technology didn't exist yet.

And what I had shown there on the D stage

was using off the shelf parts.

We hadn't even tried to push it further.

And I kept hearing the same story about

how one person would say
something was impossible,

then somebody else would figure it out.

But despite my optimism,
I still felt insecure

because so many people
were trying to knock me down.

So I flew around the country
talking to the top professors

in acoustic research.

And I was happy to find that
most of them thought it could work.

But with a few questions.

And probably the biggest
nagging question was:

If this thing could work,
why hadn't it been done before?

And it also seemed that
for every positive opinion I got

there was another negative one.

I couldn't believe how
there were such different

opinions by experts in the same field.

But despite my frustration, this was
a very important lesson for me to learn.

This taught me to be skeptical of experts,

that expertise represented
a narrow way of looking at things,

and that experts knew what they knew
based on their own prior studies.

And since ultrasonic
wireless power didn't exist yet,

no one had prior studies with it.

So no one could really determine
if this could work on a larger scale.

And nobody really
fully understood the problem.

And so no one could
accurately answer my questions.

I realized that it was up to me to solve it.

And this was a very daunting prospect

considering my scientific background
was at the undergraduate level.

And my engineering was largely self-taught.

So asking seven people the same
question and averaging the answer

was a very inefficient way about doing things,

but it did push the concept forward.

And the further that I dug
into the technology

and the theory behind it

the more complex
the technological hurdles became.

And with each new hurdle
another engineer would tell me:

It's not going to work.

But because I already learned
to not trust one person's opinion

I became immune to the naysayers.

For each technological hurdle
deemed insurmountable by the experts

I would spend just a few hours
thinking about the problem

from a variety of approaches.

As Steve Jobs said,
I had to think differently.

So I found solutions based on
the acoustics of musical instruments,

based on other technologies
and from basic research,

such as -- from authoritative
sources such as Wikipedia.

And when I would present
my progress to the engineers

they'd say,
"Yeah, that could work."

So I was able solve problems

when the PhD experts couldn't

with just a few hours of really simple research.

Every single argument over
why the technology couldn't work

has been indisputably wrong.

And for every objection that's been raised

I've found solutions.

This was another very important
lesson for me to learn.

Engineers are inherently
linear thinkers

and tend to take a very binary approach
to solving problems.

When faced with a problem they think:
Can this work, or can this not work?

But I would think,
How can I make this work?

As a non-expert
I had an advantage because

I could look at a problem
from different angles

because I just didn't know it was possible.

Being naive is sometimes a good thing.

Because without constraints
the world is truly your oyster.

Now this is not to say that experts
aren't necessary, that is entirely false.

Experts are extremely critical
in carrying scientific visions forward

and driving ideas to reality.

And now eight months later
I have four of the top

ultrasonic engineers in the world
working for me, or working with me.

(Laughter)

And developing my prototype
according to my design.

It's going to work and
it's going to be awesome.

And I can't wait
to give the middle finger and smile

to all the engineers
that criticized the crap out of me.

(Applause)

My experience also made me wonder

how many game changing,
brilliant ideas out there

thought of by laypeople, teenagers,
store clerks, paleobiologists

have been squashed by experts that said:

"That can't work."

I know that if I weren't
as stubborn as I am

I would have chucked this
entire idea eight months ago.

Because I was told that
my idea was impossible.

But by thinking differently,
by thinking outside the box,

by thinking around corners
you can outthink the top thinkers.

They say that the most
revolutionary ideas in the world

were considered crazy up until the point
that they became revolutionary.

The world was flat.

The Earth was at the center of the Universe.

Electricity could never be tamed
and ultrasound can't charge your iPhone.

But that was then and this is the future.

So dream out loud. Ask questions.

Take risks. Never give up.

Keep pushing and believe in yourself

even when no one else does.

Thank you.

(Applause)