Issue date: 3/7/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Ben Filio Local company Electric Owl Studios manufactures and markets children's gaming kiosks, like this one, to hospitals and car dealerships. [Click to enlarge]

While working on their second-semester project, three Carnegie Mellon University grad students knew they wanted two things: They wanted to help kids, and they wanted to create something for the medical field.

The three met at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon where students can pitch projects as they complete their degrees. They developed an idea for a game kiosk for hospital waiting rooms and began to set the design in motion.

Their idea evolved into a full-fledged company, and the students became businessmen.

Fred Gallart, now the president and CEO of their company, Electric Owl Studios, chief technical officer Phil Light and CCO Patrick Mittereder decided on a game kiosk so that kids would have something quick, fun and easy to do while they wait at Children's Hospital in Oakland.

"At first, we had the whole idea we wanted to do crazy things like turn the waiting room into a playground," Gallart said. "We wanted to use our varying talents and expertise to do something positive."

But upon visiting a waiting room in Children's, the three decided on something with animation that provided more stimulation than the traditional toys, something that would reach all ages and something that kids could leave behind when their name was called without too much fuss.

Their taxing process meant a lot of late nights, sometimes forcing them to sleep in the lab since it was a 3-mile bike ride from their homes in East Liberty. They developed prototypes, tested the product and, in addition to classes and other mandatory projects, pitched the idea to Children's, that they were connected with through professors at ETC.

Luckily for them, the late nights paid off, and Children's bought their concept.

Continued...

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