CLEVELAND, Ohio – Fixing the teeth-rattling, vehicle-damaging effects of a pothole could be as simple as dropping a bag of goo into the hole, say Case Western Reserve University grads, who invented the product.
The mixture is a “non-Newtonian fluid” because it hardens when force is applied to it and softens when the force lets up. When a car drives over it the bag expands in the pothole, smoothing the drive.
Two Case graduates are pitching their patent-pending product to cities and counties. They are also lining up manufacturing and other details for U-Patch, which will soon be tested at the National Center of Asphalt Technology, said Chimadika Okoye.
It has been more than five years since Okoye and three other students created the product, which received entrepreneurship recognition in 2012.
Pothole patch invention a winner for CWRU students
Okoye said the idea never died, but attending college and finding a job while refining the product and seeking funding, took time.
How was the U-Patch invented?
Okoye said he and three other students were participating in an entrepreneurial immersion week in 2011 when they decided to randomly ask people at a gas station what problems needed to be solved.
“One guy said ‘potholes,'” he said.
The students began working on a way to temporarily fill a hole until a street crew could permanently fix it.
The recipe was an environmentally friendly concoction that resembles batter. The fluid was put in a pliable bag.
The sack is dropped onto a pothole. The goo stiffens when a vehicle rolls over it, preventing the tires from dropping into the hole. It returns to liquid form after the vehicle passes.
What has happened since it was invented?
The pothole patch received widespread attention after winning several entrepreneurial competitions in 2012. The students were contacted by potential investors. They used the money won in competitions to create Hole Patch LLC.
But the business did not get off the ground because school, jobs and paying off student loans were a higher priority, Okoye said.
He took a job as a commodities broker but never gave up on the idea.
How did the product get reborn?
In 2016 Okoye’s fraternity brother and CWRU roommate, David Yeu, said he would like to help develop the product and his family was interested in investing in it.
A new company, Yeu Patch LLC was formed in March 2016. “We licensed the intellectual property from Hole Patch,” Okoye said.
Okoye said he reached a deal with his three former partners, who will receive royalties from product sales.
Yeu Patch was one of nine awarded cash, services and connections at the inaugural [M]SPIRE pitch competition by the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network (Magnet) in October.
What’s happening now?
Okoye and Yeu are working with Magnet as well as mentor Joao Maia, an associate professor of engineering at CWRU, Okoye said.
They have pitched the product to counties and cities in Ohio and have tested it in Franklin and Montgomery counties.
One bag has been in a pothole near Cuyahoga Community College’s Metropolitan Campus for four months, he said.
“Everyone likes the product and will use it differently,” Okoye said. “in Solon police and rubbish truck drivers can drive by and drop them in. Road crews use them in other cities.”
The bags are 12-by-12-inch and 15-by-20-inch. They are 2.5 inches deep and cost $60 to $100.
The company is seeking partnerships and working with manufacturers.
Okoye and Yeu now work full time for Yeu Hole. Yeu, who had worked as an auditor, is a bartender on weekends. Okoye is a bouncer.
“We are committed,” Okoye said. “The gel turns a pothole into butter.”
For more information contact Okoye at cjo17@case.edu.
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