The Day I Helped Make a Woman Cry

One of last week's Super Bowl commercials had a personal connection for me. It came late in the game when most people had already shut it off or at least tuned out. It was the Microsoft "Technology" commercial. In it was a small snippet of this video from a couple of years ago:
The women in it has just had her recently implanted hearing aid turned on and was hearing for the first time in her life. I cannot begin to imagine the sensation.

This was a device made by a company that I used to work for, Envoy Medical. I won't go into all the details, but when I was hired, the product had horrendous corrosion issues. (Not surprising, since your body is basically a 0.9 wt% solution of NaCl at 37 ^oC.) Plastics to the rescue. Silicones and parylenes and other materials did a nice job of stopping the runaway electrochemistry. With the problems fixed, the device regained regulatory approval and is now being successfully implanted.

While it is never what I expected when I started working with polymers, I can honestly say that the proudest moment of my career has been the day that I helped make a woman cry.

Previous Years
February 7, 2012 - Well, What is the Viscosity of Fudge?

Februaru 7, 2011 - Withholding Information