HOW many engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
Wait. What about this one? Normal people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.
Engineer jokes are a hoot but they have a hidden point buried between the lines: that engineers are a different breed altogether. After all, it takes an engineer to change the world.
For all our significant strides in development and technology, it often seems that the most technological innovations have happened elsewhere. Today, as more of us are learning what technology and innovation can do and how to use it, fewer people are learning how to build it. The truth of the matter is simply this — technology breakthroughs can't happen without the engineers to build them.
Engineer Tee Tone Vei is determined to do just that: build, innovate, design and change the world in the process. The founder of Intrix Group, a revolutionary organisation that's had a hand in some of the most innovative inventions in water and heating technology, gathered some of the finest local engineers and came up with revolutionary inventions and designs that have been recognised around the globe.
With a proven track record of 17 (going on to 18 and beyond!) technology patents, Tee and his team have also been awarded by the Malaysian Book of Records for their largest renewable energy hot water system.
Their milestones are impressive, to say the least, which include designing the world's most compact hot water system for the Antarctica Traverse by British adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, and installing 1,000 units of hand-wash machines at the Olympic London Stadium in the UK back in 2012. Not bad at all for a buatan Malaysia (Made in Malaysia) team.
The wheel may have already been invented. But to Tee and his band of engineers, the potential to reinvent the wheel seems endless. Problem-solving happens to be Intrix's forte. "We can't solve everything, of course," clarifies Tee, before adding with a smile: "But we can pull together our various disciplines of knowledge and try to solve problems that impact the world."
Of course, he wants to save the world. I dare say all engineers would like to try anyway. "The fundamental issues faced globally have to do with energy, air quality and clean water. We want to try to solve those problems," says Tee. Intrix's three product categories — Intrix AquaTec, Intrix ThermoTec and Intrix MediTec — are innovations that address some of those issues.
So how does one keep inventing and chalking up patents like notches on a bedpost? "By being rebellious," he answers simply, adding: "And approaching things differently." It's all about looking for solutions that are out of the box. And Tee and his team have been described as having a "…technically rebellious mindset."
Rebellious? I raise an eyebrow. "Yes, rebellious. We keep reminding ourselves not to accept things as it is. Is there a better way to solve this? Is there a better way to do this? Why do we keep doing the same thing for the last 10 years? We need to ask ourselves these questions when confronted with a problem."
"Ah, so you adhere to the saying, 'You can't do the same thing and expect different results'," I posit, and Tee nods eagerly. "Exactly!" he replies. "I think an engineer would have coined that saying!" I tell him pointedly and he laughs. "You're right," he agrees again. "Let's put it this way, around 73 per cent of the Intrix team are engineers or have an engineering background!"
Intrix, Tee shares, was initially set up as a research and development consultancy company by a couple of engineers who wanted to challenge the norm and find ways to do things better.
"The first project was a Malaysian company asking us to redesign a water heater. When we quoted them a price, we were turned down!" he tells me with a laugh. The second enquiry came from an old friend.
"Hey Tee, I have this problem with the product. Can you solve it?" the friend asked. Tee consulted with his engineers and found that there were solutions that could be applied to improve the product. "Okay great, why don't I take you out for lunch as a thank you?" the friend told him blithely.
"That definitely wasn't going to be sustainable!" recalls Tee with a laugh. "You can't live on goodwill and free lunches alone," I agree. We break into laughter. After the two inquiries with less than favourable outcomes, the company decided to focus on countries that valued intellectual property and were willing to pay for it.
Intrix embarked on its journey into Europe many years ago and gained significant experience by working in the United Kingdom to provide R&D consultancy services on heating solutions.
Since then, the company has rapidly developed into added-value design as well as manufacture and supply hot water and heating technology solutions, to leading water heating providers in the UK.
Today, Intrix has supplied cutting-edge water and heating technology to many world-class 6-star-rated hotels, including Double Tree by Hilton, the Shangri-La and St Regis in Paris. There has been no looking back since.
INVENTOR AT HEART
Are you an inventor at heart? I ask curiously. Tee thinks for a while before replying: "Well, it's what people say of me. But I like to call myself a 'techie' at heart!"
The bespectacled founder grins widely when I ask him his age. Like a true engineer, he asks: "To how many decimal points?" Without missing a beat, he continues: "Well then, I'm 53.3 years old!"
He may be a "techie" but engineering was a bridge towards his first love: inventing. "I wanted to be an inventor and I knew from young that engineering would give me the knowledge and skill I needed to become one. I just didn't know back then whether it would be mechanical or electrical engineering that would help me on that path!" he says.
I'm impressed, of course. Not every young boy aims to be an engineer from the get go. "No," he corrects me, before adding: "I wanted to be either Ultraman or a policeman when I was really young!"
So, what changed? Tee's love for inventing was sparked, he shares, when his father took him to an inventor's exhibition organised by the Malaysian Invention and Design Society.
He recalls: "I remember entering the hall at Universiti Malaya and being mesmerised by the exhibition. I was inspired and wanted to be an inventor since then and I have my father to thank for that."
The Klang-born studied at Hin Hua High School. "Is that the big imposing building along Persiaran Raja Muda Musa?" I ask. He nods, replying: "Ah, but back then it was just a wooden building. I remember going around as a young boy trying to raise funds for the building!"
Tee's father studied animal science and had a farm in Jenjarom where the former spent part of his early childhood. His mother was a programmer at the Rubber Research Institute.
His parents, says Tee, were far-sighted enough to buy their son a personal computer when Apple II was first launched back in the 1980s. "I was probably the first boy in my school to own a personal computer… and probably the first person in Klang to own one too!" he recalls with a grin.
Owning a computer spurred Tee to invent. "I mean, I picked up basic programming back then. I think I was interested because it wasn't schoolwork! I also realised that programming could help step up my invention game."
Tee's uncles were engineers and they allowed the young boy to tinker around their workshop located above his grandmother's house during the school holidays. This was of course before the advent of tools like 3D printers, but the teenager experimented and came up with his own inventions using his uncles' tools.
"The only real invention that was remotely useful was a self-cleaning electric fly catcher!" he tells me with a hearty laugh, adding: "You know… the usual kind has a sticky paper that the flies get stuck to. Mine had a small gap where the flies that were 'electrocuted' would drop into and you could clean out that compartment when it was full."
It was never commercialised because he didn't know how useful it was out there in the market. "I never thought about marketing it. I just wanted to solve the 'fly' problem at home!" he exclaims.
The young man went on to invent more things later on in university. With his course mates, Tee entered many design competitions and some of those designs eventually found their way into Intrix's arsenal of innovative products years later.
When the young man was hired after graduation by a reputable company that produced heating elements and electrical products, he was given a free hand to set up a lab and a R&D department. "It dawned on me then that I could actually be a full-time inventor instead of just tinkering around and inventing during my free time!" he recalls, grinning.
After 13 years with the company, he and a group of "rebellious" engineers decided to branch out and set up Intrix. "We were like-minded and that was very important," he says, before adding with a cheeky aside: "But not all of them were from Klang!"
Do you really need to be rebellious to be an inventor? I ask him. "It's essential for creativity. You certainly need that to find solutions," he replies.
Harvard psychiatrist Albert Rothenberg would agree, of course. Rothenberg spent more than five decades researching individuals who'd made ground-breaking contributions to science, literature and the arts, seeking to understand what drove their creativity.
He found that they were strongly and emotionally driven by wanting to create something new, rather than extend current perspectives. He found they consciously saw things with a fresh mindset rather than blindly following established wisdom — two qualities that would seem to suggest a rebellious, rather than conformist, personality.
The father of two adds: "If we can connect with others who also have the drive to improve things and to create new capabilities, even better; there's strength in common purpose. And that's what Intrix is all about."
So how many engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
I never got to ask Tee that question. But I highly suspect that if there was an innovative method of changing the light bulb or even finding an out-of-the-box solution to create a new lighting technology that doesn't need to get "changed", Tee and his band of rebel engineers would no doubt find a way.
For details on Intrix Group and their products, go to www.intrixgroup.com.