< Back Steven Arms David and Jan Blittersdorf Frank Bryan Mary Cushman David Marvin Raymond J. McNulty Lindsey Melander Miriam E. Nelson Germain Njila David Perez Andrew Siebengartner Bridget Thabault John Todd Mary C. Watzin Jody Williams		STEVEN ARMS Class of 1981, M.S., 1984, College of Engineering and Mathematics Stevens Arms was a sophomore at UVM when a work-study program in the College of Medicine’s Orthopedics Department gave him the kind of opportunity that only a research university can offer an undergraduate. He got involved in measuring the stress on human joints, and work-study became a life’s work. Today Arms is President of MicroStrain, Inc., a Williston, Vermont-based company that designs and manufactures micro-miniature wireless sensors that record the stress on everything from kneecaps to helicopter rotor blades to bridges. While earning a master’s in mechanical engineering, Arms became more intrigued by sensors than by the research they were intended to assist. “I was making them in my apartment and living on macaroni and cheese. They were small, submersible, and infinitely compliant.” And, it turned out, infinitely versatile. Since its founding in 1986, MicroStrain has expanded its customer base from biomedical researchers to manufacturers, civil engineers, the aircraft and automotive industries, and the military. Unlike many entrepreneurs, Arms has financed MicroStrain’s growth with grants—most notably Small Business Innovation Research Awards—rather than venture capital. “The experience I got at UVM has been extraordinarily helpful,” he says. “I learned how to ask a question about a problem and devise a research plan.” Now Arms and a dozen colleagues are trying to devise a way to eliminate camshafts in cars and trucks—“there could be a 15 to 20 percent savings in fuel economy”--and imagining how their sensors could contribute to homeland security. They might monitor shipping containers around the world, for instance, or safeguard the perimeters of military installations and chemical and nuclear plants. “The advent of wireless,” says Arms, “allows us to dream a different dream.”