ON CAMPUS
campusreview. com. au
Meet the cool kids
Photo: Evan Cantwell, Creative Services, George Mason University
Build a better fire extinguisher and the world will beat a path to your YouTube channel.
Seth Robertson and Viet Tran interviewed by James Wells
The internet-famous inventors behind the Wave Extinguisher are encouraging any university student with wild ideas to pursue, create and innovate.
The Wave Extinguisher is a portable device that puts out fire with sound, invented by Seth Robertson and Viet Tran, undergraduate engineering students at George Mason University in Virginia in the US. Using low-frequency bass soundwaves, the Wave Extinguisher can instantaneously douse a blaze, and a video of its demonstration quickly went viral. It was a top trending topic on Facebook and the video has 3.6 million views on YouTube.
Robertson and Tran’ s classmates and professors didn’ t believe the Wave Extinguisher would work. Many of their professors said the duo simply didn’ t have the background or experience to create such a device, which they invented as part of their coursework, and they struggled to find a staff member who would supervise their project. Three of their classmates who were assigned to work with them moved to other groups, as they thought pursuing the idea would lead them to fail.
Eventually, Robertson and Tran’ s faculty adviser, professor Brian Mark, signed off on the project.
“ We came to [ Mark ] and told him we had this project that we really wanted to do [ and ] none of the other professors were signing off on it but, basically, we need another professor to sign off on it,” Robertson said.“ He told us,‘ I don’ t know anything about the subject. But you guys have done your research and it looks like you have a passion for the idea. Who am I to be the one to stop you from doing what you want to do. At the end of the class I am the one who gives you guys a grade.
24