“I give a dam”
Selim Chacour is a professor at the Institute of Advanced Discovery and Innovation at the University of South Florida. He is also the founder of the American Hydro Corporation, which became the leader seller of turbines in North America. During his career, he has made many improvements to existing turbines. He has helped increase efficiency and better ways to produce hydraulic energy. He also helped develop programs that allow testing designs in a virtual environment, instead of physically. He currently holds 8 US patents and has received the National Hydropower Association's Henwood Award. This award is considered the highest achievement in his field.
“Find what you like in life, and go for it”
His inventions have had an impact worldwide. They are used in one of the largest dams in Egypt known as the Aswan High. They are used as well here in the United States. We currently have his turbines in the Hoover Dam. His invention has increased efficiency, and more production of energy at lower costs. I consider his product to be a disruptive innovation. I think so, because like we learned in class from Christensen in “What is a disruptive innovation?”. A disruptive discovery doesn't necessarily need to be a new product. It can be an improvement of something already created that changes the market. Up until his discovery, the turbine market was stagnant and stuck in old and inefficient ways. However, Dr. Selim refused to just sit and watch. He created turbines that were more cost efficient and changed the way they previously worked. This also ties to Kander’s TED talk “Our approach to innovation is dead wrong”. Most people get stuck on the drawing board and plan for years, but by the time they reach the market they don't know if their innovation will be. He got to action and started creating and testing as soon as possible. He even created the virtual turbine tester mentioned above, so turbines could be tested even without being physically made.
How to learn from this innovator and improve yourself as an innovative thinker:
The main lesson I learned from Dr. Chacour is perseverance. It is often hard to go against the crowd and to make a change when others want to just follow the old ways. It’s hard to challenge the “it’s always been done this way and it works. Why change it?”. However, it is important to know that innovation can sometimes be a lonely path. You have to follow your passions and let them draw you forward. I think I will utilize this lesson in my life. For example, sometimes I come up with ideas that others might consider crazy. Then I become discouraged and think they might be stupid and not worth pursuing. Next time I will try to explore my ideas more and see where they take me.
Questions:
1. Even when people were stuck wanting to do stuff the same way, you persisted. What was your inspiration? What kept you going?
2. How did you become interested in working with turbines? Did you feel drawn to create clean energy from hydraulics or was it something completely different?
3. What has been the biggest challenge in your career? How do you think it helped shape you as an innovator?