INNOVATION
Mines Student Wins Braun Inventor Award by South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
William Trevillyan, a double major in chemical engineering and chemistry at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, has won the 2020 Ann and Dave Braun Student Inventor Award. The annual $5,000 cash award includes a free patent application from Goodhue, Coleman & Owens, P.C. The award was established to recognize a South Dakota Mines student who has made a significant discovery or invention while enrolled. Trevillyan’s invention is a water or fluid detection sensor. It can detect small water leaks or flooding and alert a property owner that maintenance is needed before major damage occurs. “I was trying to solve a problem,” Trevillyan says. “It is difficult to detect small amounts of water produced by water leaks within a home.” Insurance industry records show that water damage and mold cost insurance companies $2.5 billion dollars per year. Products that detect leaks before they become a major problem can save individual property owners thousands of dollars. The invention is tied to Trevillyan’s company, HomeMetrics. The detector is only one component in the company’s “MetricsNetwork,” which is a system of sensors that use Internet of Things (IOT) technology within homes. Trevillyan and his partner, CTO and fellow Mines student Timothy William Trevillyan joins other Mines students and some Ford, hired seven other Mines students in February. members of the startup company HomeMetrics LLC at These students include Riley Kopp, platform Colorado State University's Nancy Richardson Design Center. engineer; Mike Ahlers, embedded systems engineer; Mitchell Peterson, application developer; Fernando Chavez, business solutions developer; Antonio monetary value of the patent.” Bano-Sanoguera, product designer; Field Mitchell, Trevillyan grew up in the small town of Valley firmware developer; and Vytautas Solderholm, Springs, SD. During his college career at South hardware developer. Dakota Mines he has also been The company is moving a Barry Goldwater Scholar, forward with testing this TEDx Rapid City Speaker, invention and others in its Water damage and winner of the Governor’s Giant portfolio of products. They mold cost insurance Vision Student Business Plan expect to have their first product available in the marketplace companies $2.5 billion Competition and a winner of the university’s Brass Life within the year. dollars per year. Award, which paid for a trip to “Receiving support from the Beijing, China, in 2019 where he Braun family is a tremendous spent four months in the CET boost which will help our Beijing Intensive Language Program. Following his company reach our next set of milestones,” says graduation in May, he plans to work full-time as a Trevillyan. “Going through the process of filing a product manager at the local high-growth startup patent is extremely valuable to understand, and the company Property Meld. knowledge I will be learning goes far beyond the
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