More about Shane Chen:
Who: Inventor Shane Chen, 61, founder of the Camas-based Inventist company, and creator of more than 40 consumer gadgets, including the Hovertrax, which later became known as the hoverboard.
Camas ties: Chen and his family, including wife Jennifer and daughter, Ywanne, a 2006 Camas High graduate, moved to Camas in 1992, after falling in love with the area’s natural beauty, proximity to the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area and combination of rural living mixed with urban amenities.
Latest News: Chen’s latest invention, a self-balancing, electric-powered riding device known as the IOTAtrax, recently took Digital Trends magazine’s “top tech” award for ridables presented at the international CES 2018 consumer technology conference in Las Vegas.
Other inventions: Before he became known as “the hoverboard inventor,” Chen had already invented dozens of consumer gadgets, including a water skipper device that allowed people to “wiggle and move over the water;” a device that kept the fizz in people’s unfinished sodas; and an exercise device called the Bodytoner.
Ag Research: Before founding Inventist to concentrate on consumer products and rideable technology, Chen, who earned his master’s degree in agricultural meteorology at the China Agricultural University in Beijing before moving to the U.S. in the mid-1980s, owned a company that specialized in agriculture research inventions, such as the wearable photosynthesis analyzing device Chen invented so researchers could learn more about plants and leaves while working in the field.
First Invention: Chen’s first invention also was related to agriculture. After high school, Chen moved to a remote, countryside village in China for three years. Here, at the age of 19, Chen created his first invention: a device that remotely linked the village wells and crop-watering systems, making life easier for the villagers who had been monitoring each system individually before Chen’s remote-controlled invention.
Hobbies: When he’s not inventing, Chen is an avid outdoorsman and says he often travels to Hood River, Oregon, to windsurf with his family.
What’s next: Chen isn’t divulging too many invention secrets, but says he always has several projects going on at one time. Consumers should keep an eye out for more electric-powered rideables — this time to ride over the water instead of the land — coming out of Chen’s Inventist company in the near future.
