人妻少妇专区

Alumni Gazette

Modern athletic apparel incorporates some fairly high technology鈥攗sually in the form of sophisticated fabrics engineered to keep the body warm in the cold, cool in the heat, and dry year around. But one feature of sportswear鈥攖he zipper鈥攈as remained virtually the same for more than a century.

That may change. This summer, the popular sportswear manufacturer Under Armour began to roll out clothing outfitted with 鈥淢agZip鈥濃�攁 magnetic zipper, operable with one hand and minimal dexterity, invented by engineer Scott Peters 鈥�01, 鈥�02 (MS) with design help from his friend Dave Lyndaker and guidance from his mother, Nancy Peters, an occupational therapist.

Peters came up with the idea watching his uncle struggle with a standard zipper. His uncle has myotonic dystrophy, a degenerative muscle disease. MagZip features a unique catch design, and the ends of the zipper are magnetic. 鈥淭hey pull together and lock together,鈥� Peters says. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e standing up and the zipper is straight, you can essentially pull鈥� with one hand.

The three partners filed for a patent, formed a company called DNS Designs, and approached 鈥渁bout a half dozen鈥� companies, Peters says, before Under Armour approached them. 鈥淭hey鈥檇 been looking at doing some innovative zipper work. So they were out there searching patents on the Internet,鈥� Peters says of the company.

The magnetic zipper has advantages for all kinds of users, including users wearing bulky gloves or carrying items.

DNS Designs is only one of Peters鈥檚 enterprises. After earning his bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees in chemical engineering, he worked for Intel, General Motors, and Progressive Machine and Design, doing processing and manufacturing engineering, before founding Construction Robotics, in Victor, New York, outside Rochester. For now, DNS Designs is his part-time gig. But w

hile MagZip is exclusive to Under Armour sportswear for the time being, Peters has begun working with other companies. 鈥淲e continue to develop ideas on the side,鈥� he says.

鈥擪aren McCally 鈥�02 (PhD)