Eric Schuh ‘01 is an engineer by trade and inventor by choice, thinking outside the box and creating products in a unique way.

Schuh, lead engineer for Whirlpool, has been designing user interfaces for the company for nine years, but it was a side project design that landed him on the Science Channel’s “All-American Makers.”

Schuh and his invention, The Diaper Check, will be showcased on the Wednesday, February 3, episode of the show. It will air at 8 p.m. (7 p.m. Central).

How does The Diaper Check work? It’s pretty simple. You hang a USB-sized key chain that can tell parents if a child’s diaper is wet. The product reads capacitance, which is the ability of a body to store an electrical charge. If a diaper is dry, the sensor won’t get a reading and if the diaper is wet the reading will come through on The Diaper Check.

“I would equate it to almost like a stud finder,” Schuh said.

He had wanted to create product for years but it wasn’t until after he was working at Whirlpool using capacitive touch products and sensors that he found a part that might just do the trick.

Schuh just needed to use the part in a different way than it was originally being used for.

“My favorite part of designing new products is when you do something no one has done before. Capacitive touch and sensors have been mainstream for 10 years. I’m the first and only one that has done this in that time,” Schuh said. “I was the first one to bring in speakers to appliances using the same thing that makes a greeting card talk. Before the sounds were more harsh and polarizing. When I take things that are around me already and I apply them in a way that no one has applied them before it is very fulfilling for me.”

The Diaper Check was created as a hobby, something Schuh’s wife always wanted. Ironically it was completed a week after their youngest child was out of diapers.

But it grabbed the attention of others. His Kickstarter goal was $500, but he ended up selling $13,000 worth of product.

After graduating from Kettering, Schuh worked for General Motors doing a lot of product testing. But when he wanted to learn more of the design aspect of engineering he moved across the state of Michigan and began working for Whirlpool.

“And nine years later I guess I’m on a couple of shows,” Schuh said.

Schuh said the filming for “All-American Makers” took two and a half days.

“I think being on the show will open some doors with this invention. I’m pretty excited to see something I did on TV,” Schuh said.

Segment one of the show includes pitching the idea; segment two they test the product; segment three there is a focus group that gives feedback and segment four includes an offer from an investor.

Schuh can’t discuss the outcome for his product, but he said it was a great experience.

Schuh is a husband and a father of three. He studied Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering while an undergraduate at Kettering and then later got a master’s degree in Operations Management.

He’s done three Kickstarter campaigns since college to help with inventions he makes in his spare time.

The co-op experience brought him to Kettering, but there’s one lesson he took away that he still uses today -- project management.

“I got two degrees at one time in four years. I had to manage my classes very well. Learning to balance my schedule, to juggle my priorities was a major lesson,” Schuh said.