By By Mitch Freeman Madison County Record
Look out Post-It Notes -a 21-year-old Madison resident's invention could soon make you obsolete.
Elizabeth Shook of Madison, along with three classmates, has developed a portable, digital note-keeping device known as "DigiSticky."
The four engineering students developed the device as their senior year project.
The recent graduate of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology described the prototype as a simple PDA (Personal Data Assistant). It has a LCD touch screen that is about 3-inches square.
"You write on the screen and your note appears as you write it," Shook said.
Up to 10 notes can be stored in the "DigiSticky," the name the project team gave the device. The DigiSticky can be placed in your pocket, on the refrigerator, or kept in your pocket. It includes a real-time clock capable of being set to alarm for reminder of a particular note.
Shook and Brian Hunt, both electrical engineers, and two computer engineers, Sarah Walton and Sarah White, made up the development team.
Shook said the team came up with the conceptual design in the fall of their senior year. They started building the device after Thanksgiving and finished the prototype around March.
Shook credited Hunt with the idea.
The team received funding for its project from the Lemelson Foundation of Portland. She said their development plan included making the device communicate with computers, but they didn't get to that point.
The team had the option of taking the project further, through marketing analysis and onto manufacturing, but the development team went separate ways upon graduation.
"The prototype is sitting in my closet," Shook said. "It was definitely a learning experience."
Shook and company projected the DigiSticky to cost $50-$100.
Shook is the daughter of Donald and Serena Shook of Madison. She graduated from Bob Jones High School in 1999 and decided on Rose-Hulman because the school had a good student to professor ratio. Rose-Hulman, located in Terre Haute, Ind., is the number one undergraduate engineering school in the U.S., according to Shook.
She attributed her interest in the math and science field to Jennifer Roundtree, Shook's computer programming teacher at BJHS.
Shook recently moved to Baltimore, Md., where she accepted employment as an electronics engineer at Northrop Grumman.
Perhaps one day the DigiSticky, or some variation of the project Shook worked on, will be available for all to purchase and use.