Fairleigh Dickinson does the impossible. Lessons for Purdue and the rest of us.

No. 1 seed Purdue University lost in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Friday to 16th seeded Fairleigh Dickinson (FDU)―a team that wasn’t even supposed to be in the tournament let alone beat the Boilermakers in historic fashion. With an average team height of 6’3”, FDU is the smallest team in this year’s tournament. Purdue’s team is much taller and has 7’4” Zach Edey, a national player of the year. Purdue became only the second No. 1 seeded team in history out of 150 to lose to a No. 16 seed.

No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson University beat No. 1 seed Purdue University in the first round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament and stuns the world.

In a David-versus-Goliath moment, No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson beat No. 1 seed Purdue in the first round of the 2023 NCAA men's basketball tournament and stuns the world. Photo by Rick Osentoski/USA TODAY Sports.

Before the game, FDU’s coach Tobin Anderson seemed to have taunted the heavily favored Boilermakers by stating that he knew how to beat Purdue and then told his team that they could and would win. He said his team could do the impossible, stun the world, and then they did.

Was the FDU coach lying, exaggerating, or just being overly optimistic to motivate his team? You decide. Heck, the coach told reporters he had packed only one set of clothes for the trip and that he would have to do some laundry after the historic win. I have a better idea. Coach Anderson could borrow some game-time clothes from Purdue coach Matt Painter as he would not be needing them. Painter and his team would be returning to West Lafayette, Ind. where they often spend the month of March.

Painter’s stated goals for a season are to achieve a high ranking during the regular season, win the Big Ten title and earn a high seed in the NCAA tournament. I don’t recall him saying the goal is to be in the Final Four let alone win a national championship. Purdue has not made it to Final Four during Painter’s tenure or before him since 1980. He is the winningest coach to never have made it to a Final Four.

This causes people to say that it is easier for Purdue to put a man on the moon than to get its team to the NCAA’s Final Four.

Purdue plays home games in Mackey Arena located on John R. Wooden Drive. Wooden is widely considered the greatest college basketball coach of all time. As a student-athlete, he was a 5’10” guard, and three-time All American, who played on Purdue’s 1932 championship team, the school’s only national basketball championship. This predates the NCAA tournament era. That was 91 years ago. That in-state rival college down the road has five men’s basketball national championship banners.

Wooden’s philosophy was simple. Focus relentlessly on the fundamentals. Motivate each player on the team to achieve at the highest level and potential of which they are capable. And concentrate on only one game―the next game. He knew that if you string together enough next games, then it was possible to have the back-to-back undefeated seasons, back-to back national championships, and 10 national championships in a 12-year period which he did as coach. The winning and championships take care of themselves. At the most basic level, John Wooden considered himself a teacher, and that was his most important role and contribution to the sport.

Purdue seems to have been playing not to lose, rather than to win. They would be wise to follow the example of their most famous sports alumnus.

Many times, the impossible only seems that way

On any given night, either team could win the game. And many times, the lower ranked or seeded team wins and when it does, the impossible just became real. This happens in business as well as sports.

In my career as an engineer, I recall two times when this happened to me. The first time, when I was attempting to do something that I thought was difficult, but not impossible. The president of the company told me that they had tried it before, and it didn’t work. When I did accomplish that task, he then said, “Yes, but you’ll never be able to do it again!”

For the second time, I had just finished a very complex design, a 2-speed transfer case for a large articulated haul truck. A colleague told me that he believed it would never work. Later, when I was in Norway riding in a prototype of that truck, up and down the streets of the small Norwegian town where the prototype was located, I had once again apparently achieved “the impossible.”

My boss at the time adhered to the old saying, “The difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes a little longer.”

What you believe, you can achieve

FDU’s coach and team believed in themselves and their ability to do the impossible and, by doing so, achieved greatness and college basketball immortality. Purdue, not so much. The players lost their confidence, and it showed in defeat.

Believing in yourself and motivating others to also believe in themselves and to achieve their greatest potential is a critical task for a business leader and team builder.

Suddenly, the impossible becomes possible.

Come fly with me

Rick Miller met up with Team Harmony in the aeronautical engineering test lab at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas; July 2019.

Congratulations to Texas A&M’s Team Harmony who participated in Boeing’s GoFly contest’s final fly off this weekend at Moffett Field in Mountainview, California. Vying for the $1 million dollar grand prize, the team was one of five finalists in a two-year competition to design a personal flying device that is safe, useful and thrilling.

Advising Team Harmony on gear development, I have enjoyed working with aeronautical engineers Dr. Moble Benedict, David Coleman and the entire 11-person team during the past year.

The competition attracted 854 teams and 3,800 innovators from 103 countries who accepted Boeing’s bold challenge to make people fly. The GoFly prize fosters the development of safe, quiet, ultra-compact, near-vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) personal flying devices capable of flying twenty miles while carrying a single person.

With no team competing in the final fly-off achieving the competition’s stringent requirements, the $1 million grand prize remains unclaimed. With ingenuity on the cusp of innovation, Boeing is considering continuing the contest and extending the time allowed.

Continued good luck to Team Harmony!

Innovative Drive Solutions: 5 important business milestones in its first five years

When I established my business five years ago, I had a bold vision for Innovative Drive Solutions LLC. As a solo mechanical design engineering consultant, IDS is me and I am the business. It’s a reflection of me in what I have done, am doing and will continue to do personally and professionally.

Innovative Drive Solutions LLC celebrates five years keeping your gears turning.

Innovative Drive Solutions LLC celebrates five years keeping your gears turning.

As I reflect on these five years, I am proud of the many things I have accomplished.  Most notably:

  • Two of my three patents were issued, one in 2015 and one in 2016.

  • I presented a technical paper at the AGMA (American Gear Manufacturers Association) Fall Technical Meeting in 2016 in Philadelphia. At the gear industries’ premiere event, 20 technical papers are chosen each year to be presented over a four-day period by engineers from all over the world.

  • I presented a module on gear and gearbox design in 2017 at a week-long Society of Automotive Engineers seminar in Troy, Michigan.

  • During 2016/17, I authored Tooth Tips, a monthly technical column in Gear Solutions Magazine. With a circulation of 13,000, the magazine is one of the two main publications serving the engineers and executives in the gear industry.

  • I guest lectured at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana twice in a three-week period in the Fall of 2019. For the School of Technology, I gave future mechanical engineers an overview of how to design a complete gearbox/transmission from scratch. For the Krannert School of Business, I taught budding entrepreneurs how to start and maintain a sole member, one-person consulting company like I did.

Here is a partial list of industries I have served and consulted with about gearing and geared drive systems related issues:

Energy (off-shore oil and gas exploration); lift trucks, motorcycles; small kitchen appliances; ZTR lawn mowers; electrification of devices; personal flying machines; on-highway trucks; classic cars; underground coal mining equipment in South Africa; and others.

When you do a Google search using the terms quiet gears, very strong gears, high pressure angle gears, high contact ratio gears, and other related terms, the results would list my publications within the first several hits.

Thanks to my customers for their business and faith in me. Thanks to my suppliers, sub-contractors and others who support me, encourage me, and are helping me along the way. And thanks to my nephew Morgan for designing my website.  

But most of all I thank my lovely wife Monica for her help in marketing, bookkeeping, proofreading, and moral support. I couldn’t have done this without her.

The work has been interesting, challenging and rewarding both personally and professionally. And through it all, I have been able to meet and work with amazing and talented people — some of the best in the industry.

I look forward to continuing this satisfying work in the years ahead.

Reflections on 100 years of gears at Fairfield Manufacturing

Fairfield Manufacturing Corporation, now part of Dana, Inc., just celebrated its 100-year anniversary with an event commemorating this milestone for current and former employees.

Fairfield was founded in 1919 by David Ross, who also founded Ross Gear (now a division of TRW) and Rostone. Ross was a major benefactor of Purdue University (he is the Ross in the Ross-Ade football stadium) and is buried on the Purdue campus. The company remains the largest independent gear and power transmission product manufacturer in North America with around $300 million in annual sales and 1,100 employees.

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I was proud to be employed there for almost 37 years; the last 16 of those years as chief engineer. How did I feel about returning to my former employer? I had and have many great memories of this place and time and in some ways, it felt as comfortable as an old shoe and as if I had never left.

I am proud of what I accomplished at Fairfield and for the many fine people I worked with over the years.

The company was founded right after WWI and has endured through wars, the Great Depression, recessions, good and bad economic times including two near bankruptcy experiences, multiple ownership changes, floods and fires. And through it all, it has persevered.

It was a privately-owned company under Ross family ownership from its founding until 1976. The company has been an integral part of the Lafayette community for generations and supplied employment for thousands over the years. It has always been a great place to work and a good corporate citizen. It has trained and provided personnel to many other companies in this and other industries.

Some have asked: In this world of technological improvements and constant change, will the world still need gears in the future? I say yes. Even electric cars have gears and a gearbox as I found out in my consulting work with Tesla Motors in 2014-2015.

I remember in the early days of my career when I was told that gears would someday be made obsolete during my lifetime. I wondered then; What would replace them? Gears and geared devices have changed of course over the years and there is always a lot to know and learn about them. But gears have been around for thousands of years (from about 2600 BC), and I suspect they will be around for awhile longer. So as long as something moves, gears will probably still be involved and needed.

So, cheers to gears and to 100 years of success at Fairfield. I am looking forward to what the next century will bring for Dana-Fairfield and the gear industry.

A time when Will Power had no willpower

Photo by USA Today

Photo by USA Today

When IndyCar driver Will Power became a first-time Indy 500 Race winner on Sunday, he reacted in a most non ‘Will-like’ manner. The Australian, known for being calm as a kangaroo while amassing his double-digit IndyCar career wins for Team Penske, instantly knew this win was different. This was the race that to date, had eluded him. This was THE Indy 500 that Power had just won, and boy did his joy pour out.

He screamed with excitement over and over. Even though he is lactose intolerant, he gladly drank milk from the winner’s bottle – an Indy 500 tradition – then sprayed it everywhere dousing himself and the 500 Festival queen standing nearby. No apologies needed. Unbridled excitement ruled the moment.  

Power was overcome with emotion in Victory Lane and in doing so, it illustrated just how hard he had worked for that moment. His exuberant reaction showed everyone how important that achievement was to him.  

Sometimes when events go really well and a hard-fought goal is met, some people are caught off-guard and react in unexpected ways.

Have you ever felt that giddy child-like euphoric feeling that comes from accomplishing something great – maybe surprisingly so? What was it like? How did it make you feel? Hopefully, that has happened at least a few times in your life.

For me, I got that feeling every time one of my gearbox designs was assembled in the plant and then installed in a customer’s machine. Knowing the customer was satisfied with my design always got me charged up.  And when the US Patent Office notified me not once, but three times that each of my patents was approved and issued, I was animated. For a gearhead like me, that’s saying a lot.

We all can’t win the Indy 500, or a gold medal at the Olympics, but we all can achieve an important and valued goal and capture some of that feeling.

Education: The gift that keeps on giving

As my alma mater’s basketball team, the Purdue Boilermakers, prepares itself for what I hope will be a deep run in the 2018 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, I’m reminded of how my Purdue mechanical engineering education set in motion my profound thirst for knowledge.

Throughout my engineering career, I’ve never stopped learning. Whether it be a technical conference or webinar, researching and authoring a technical paper or taking a deep dive into a colleague’s publication, I am intentional in seeking out knowledge to better me personally and professionally. And you should too.

Purdue University president Mitch Daniels said, “Every successful enterprise has a very clear strategic purpose.” My personal strategy, one that has served me and my consulting business well, is to be curious and to never stop learning. 

Rick Miller's technical paper featured in Gear Technology Magazine

Indianapolis, Ind. - Innovative Drive Solutions LLC proudly shares that Rick Miller, president and sole member's technical paper was published by Gear Technology Magazine. Miller's technical paper, "Designing Very Strong Gear Teeth by Means of High Pressure Angles" was originally presented by him at the American Gear Manufacturers Association's 2016 Fall Technical Meeting and reprinted in the June 2017 issue of Gear Technology.

Photo by AGMA

Photo by AGMA

Miller presents a method of designing and specifying gear teeth with much higher bending and surface contact strength (reduced bending and surface contact stresses). His paper shows calculation procedures, mathematical solutions and the theoretical background equations to do this. Read here.

Rick Miller issued patent for invention of a dual rack output pinion drive

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Indianapolis, Indiana - Rick Miller announces the issuance to him by the U.S. Patent Office of a patent for a dual rack output pinion drive. 

Issued on December 27, 2016, patent No. 9,531,237 is an invention intended to be used for the lifting and lowering of the legs of off-shore oil rig platforms. This patent is Miller’s third and the second in the last 15 months.

This patent describes a device which enables a single motor to drive a gearbox with two outputs, each one of which is a spur gear pinion which then drives a rack. The invention allows for and helps assure torque and load sharing so that near equal torque is applied to each of the two output pinions.

Rick Miller is president of Innovative Drive Solutions, LLC, an Indianapolis-based mechanical engineering design consulting firm.

Miller has 40 years of experience in the gear industry, including 37 years with Oerlikon Fairfield Mfg. Co. in Lafayette, Indiana, the last 16 years as chief engineer. With more than 300 original designs, Miller helps clients in the United States and around the globe with his gear and gearbox design and analysis expertise, creativity and out-of-the-box problem solving abilities. Visit InnovativeDriveSolutions.com.

Gear Solutions magazine Q&A with Rick Miller

I was honored when the editor of Gear Solutions magazine, the number-one B2B publication in the gear industry, selected Innovative Drive Solutions LLC - my design consultancy business - to profile in its November 2016 issue.  

"As an inventor, I am always discovering a solution to every problem to the benefit of my customers," as told to Gear Solutions.

Read the full interview online here or download it here.

Giving back to the profession that has given me so much

Each year, the American Gear Manufacturers Association Fall Technical Meeting provides an outstanding opportunity to share ideas with others in the gear industry on design, analysis, manufacturing and application of gears, and gear drives and related products, as well as associated processes and procedures.

Photo provided by American Gear Manufacturers Association.

Photo provided by American Gear Manufacturers Association.

And last week in Pittsburgh, the founding location of AGMA, I was among the selected authors to present the results of their work to an audience of knowledgeable professionals from the United States and around the world and to participate in discussions with that audience.

 

It was a career highlight for me to contribute to the engineering profession as a whole, especially during AGMA’s Centennial Year (1916-2016), while enlightening my peers on a subject I know well.

My technical paper, Designing Very Strong Gear Teeth by Means of High Pressure Angles, illustrates a method of designing and specifying gear teeth with much higher bending and surface contact strength than that of conventional gear teeth. To obtain the abstract, go here.

Miller to present at fall technical meeting

I look forward to presenting my technical paper at the American Gear Manufacturers Association's Fall Technical Meeting on Oct. 3 in Pittsburgh. By sharing with my industry peers the latest methods and cutting-edge technologies, my technical paper - Designing Very Strong Gear Teeth by Means of High Pressure Angles - illustrates a method of designing and specifying gear teeth with much higher bending and surface contact strength than that of conventional gear teeth.

    Hot job: Mechanical engineers keep things working

    Recently the Indianapolis Star identified my career field as a "hot job" and asked me a few questions to help illustrate how mechanical engineers blend technical skills, science knowledge and creativity to improve and advance mechanics. 

    Indy Star hot jobs 1-8-16

    For as long as I can remember, I knew I was going to be an engineer. For others, their talent, training and intellect opens many professional doors one of which might be engineering. To learn more about the career I love and the hot job others seek, click here.

    Rick Miller is president / sole owner of Innovative Drive Solutions LLC, an Indianapolis-based engineering consulting firm specializing in gears and power transmission devices.

     

    Rick Miller issued latest patent for invention of a torque sharing drive and torque sharing process

    Indianapolis, Indiana - Rick Miller announces the issuance to him by the U.S. Patent Office of a patent for a torque sharing drive and torque sharing process.

    The patent is for invention No. 9,145,956 issued on September 29, 2015. Miller’s invention is intended to be used for the lifting and lowering of off-shore oil rig platforms.

    The latest patent is the second of Miller’s inventions and a third patent is pending. The U.S. Patent Office issued Miller Patent No. 4549449 in 1985 for his original design of a gear reducer. This invention is a two-speed hydraulically shifted planetary speed reducer serving industries such as construction equipment, road building and general industrial.

    Rick Miller is president and sole owner of Innovative Drive Solutions, LLC, and Indianapolis-based mechanical engineering design consulting firm. Miller has 40 years of experience in the gear industry, including 37 years with Oerlikon Fairfield Mfg. Co. in Lafayette, Indiana, the last 16 years as chief engineer. With more than 300 original designs, Miller helps clients in the United States and around the globe with his gear and gearbox design and analysis expertise, creativity and out-of-the-box problem solving abilities.

    Miller earned a bachelor’s of science degree in mechanical engineering technology from Purdue University. He is a member of Society of Automotive Engineers International, American Society of Mechanical Engineers and vice-chairman of the Vehicle Gearing Committee of the American Gear Manufacturers Association.

    Innovative Drive Solutions, LLC is proud member of the American Gear Manufacturers Association. To learn more, visit InnovativeDriveSolutions.com.