Summer camp attendees meet life-saving inventor
The 152 kids who attended Camp Invention at Neil Armstrong Middle School in Bethel Park were treated to a visit from inventor Alois Langer, who co-invented the implantable cardioverter defibrillator.
Camp Invention is a national summer camp program for students entering kindergarten through sixth grade and is presented by the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
The Armstrong middle school camp is run mostly by Bethel Park School District teachers, including camp director Laura Huth, a special education teacher at the district’s William Penn Elementary School, as well as student volunteers.
Mr. Langer, who was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2002, is a native of Forest Hills and now lives near Baltimore.
He studied electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering/biotechnology at Carnegie Mellon University.
He began work on the implantable cardioverter defibrillator in 1972 when he worked as chief biomedical engineer at MedRad Inc. In 1980, he oversaw the final testingand implantation of the deviceinto a human patient.
According to the American Heart Association, the implantable cardioverter defibrillator, or ICD, is a battery-powered device that is placed under the skin to keep track of a patient’s heart rate using thin wires connected to the heart. If an abnormal heart rate is detected, the ICD will deliver an electric shock to restore a normal heartbeat.
Mr. Langer was able to tour Camp Invention and watch students participate in activities like “robotic pet vet” where they had to diagnose a disease in a robotic dog and “mod my mini-mansion” where they designed and constructed mansions out of cardboard boxes and turned them into “smart” houses.
“I love doing it for the kids ofthe future,” Mr. Langer said about visiting schools and campsduring his visit on July 25. “I like the imagination you cansee in the kids.”
Some of the campers were so excited to meet Mr. Langer they asked him for his autograph. “He’s a famous guy,” said 9-year-old Holden Bartoleit,who was one of the autograph-seekers.
Riley Philage, 9, also was able to snag an autograph from Mr. Langer.
“He’s really important because he saves people’s lives with his thing,” Riley said of the ICD. Riley added that when he grows up he wants to be an inventor.
During a question-and-answer session with campers, Mr. Langer said he knew he wantedto be an inventor when hewas 5yearsold.
Mr. Langer said it was partly because his father, who was a chemist at Westinghouse Research, often would bring home “toys” from work that intrigued him. “My father helped me,” to want to becomean inventor, he said.
Thesemiretired inventor is working on a watch that will closely monitor a person’s heart. He said it is similar to a smart watch, but will be able tocollect more data than those onthe market today.