“Smart”Creation made by WKU | First national patent of WKU is inspired by……
The idea of magic tool that can hang four tops and two bottoms at the same time came from our dorm. Chen Zhilong, a senior student majoring in international finance, and Gao Ying, a graduate of 2017, got their national utility patent this March with the “super” hanger. It is the first national patent acquired by WKU students! Previously, Chen was invited by Wenzhou Base of Alibaba Innovation Center and participated in the entrepreneurship & innovation competition.
Hanger designed by Chen Zhilong has a simple structure. It has multiple hooks and arms to hang several kinds of clothes in order to efficiently use the space. Chen Zhilong started to live on campus from high school. He found most student dorms are small but accommodate many students so the space to hang out clothes. Thus, he wanted to create a hanger that requires much less space to hang out clothes. This idea eventually came true in his junior year. Chen Zhilong started working and asked Gao Ying, a senior student majoring in accounting at that time, to help him to get this job down.
For a student who majored in business and had no painting skills, the fabrication of engineering drawing posed a great challenge. He had to transfer the plan drawing into a 3D drawing and present the model of hanger imagined in the mind on the paper precisely. He searched for data day and night and studied templates and steps on the Internet over and over again. It took him more than two months to obtain a presentable engineering drawing and turn the abstract idea in the mind into a reality.
Challenge always comes with fruit. In the application of patent, Chen Zhilong believed the biggest gain was the improvement of overall thinking ability. “If the patent is going to be sold in the market, you have to think in an all-round way, just like a company CEO.”
The national patent for this hanger was finally granted this March! Just then, the Career Development Center sent out the invitations of Wenzhou the second Entrepreneurship & Innovation Competition. Chen Zhilong believed it was a great opportunity and signed up. After he finished his speech, leader of Wenzhou Branch of Alibaba found him and invited him to participate in the national entrepreneurship & innovation competition sponsored by Alibaba. This competition has always drawn the attention of domestic venture capital investors. However, Chen missed the competition because he had an examination to take.
He said he was not eager to sell the patent. He wanted to establish a 3D model drawing first and send it to large furniture manufacturers to seek more opportunities to show his patent, make it available to everyone and make their life easier.
