Creator of "Ginger" Human Transporter to Speak at Yale Engineering Lecture Series

John B. Morrell, a 1986 graduate of Yale College and lead dynamics engineer for the Segway Human Transporter, will be the next speaker in the Sesquicentennial Engineering Distinguished Lecture Series on Tuesday, March 5 at 4 p.m. in Davies Auditorium, 15 prospect St.

John B. Morrell, a 1986 graduate of Yale College and lead dynamics engineer for the Segway Human Transporter, will be the next speaker in the Sesquicentennial Engineering Distinguished Lecture Series on Tuesday, March 5 at 4 p.m. in Davies Auditorium, 15 prospect St.

His talk, titled “Developing Segways: The Struggle for Smooth Transitions Between Research and Production,” is co-sponsored by Yale’s Faculty of Engineering and the Yale chapter of the scientific research society Sigma Xi.

While developing the Segway Human Transporter, the product development team generated a number of methodologies for taking new technologies out of a research environment and into a consumer product. In his lecture, Morrell will present some of these methodologies and examples of their use in developing the Segway.

Morell started working at Deka Research and Development in 1996 as the lead control engineer on the IBOT, a mobility device that allows disabled people to climb stairs and stand at eye-level by using dynamic stabilization technology. In 1999 he joined a team to develop the control software and system design of a two-wheeled mobility device, code-named “Ginger.”

For the past three years, Morrell has led the development of many of the core technologies for the Segway Transporter, including development of control architectures and algorithms and their implementation into production software. He currently manages dynamics and software development at Segway.

Share this with Facebook Share this with X Share this with LinkedIn Share this with Email Print this

Media Contact

Karen N. Peart: karen.peart@yale.edu, 203-980-2222