DURHAM — Jon Hanson figures the lowly light switch is due for a makeover.

He’s going halfway around the world to help make it happen.

The freelance engineer was en route Thursday to the MIT Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp in Brisbane, Australia, to refine his idea for a smarter light switch. The trip was paid for in part by a $5,000 Maine Technology Institute grant also announced Thursday.

His invention and company, which he calls SwitchDown, works in cases where two switches control the same light. Ordinarily, they can quickly get out of sync — a switch in the down position, for example, when the light is actually on.

With 35-year-old Hanson’s first invention, up is on, down is off and that is that; flip one switch in one direction and both move.

“I have a number of people who tell me — they say it’s almost like a confession, they’re kind of embarrassed by it  — but they go around at the end of the day and put all the switches down because they feel better, they sleep better having them in the down position,” Hanson said. “There is another third of people who it would never even occur to them to think about the light switch position. When I describe it, they’re like, ‘Would anyone actually buy that?'”

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Hanson said he’s had the idea for about eight years but until two years ago, he didn’t have the time to pursue it. He’s developed a prototype and is going through lab testing. He’s also in the second round of Greenlight Maine, an in-state entrepreneurs’ competition.

He plans to apply for a Maine Technology Institute seed grant in April to help move SwitchDown along, and in the meantime, he’s off to camp.

Hanson said 6,000 people applied and fewer than 100 were accepted to the MIT global camp, which changes locations every year. He’ll spend March 26-31 with other entrepreneurs, each bringing a product pitch with them, expanding, refining and rethinking ideas.

“This boot camp is going to put me in contact with creative, dynamic entrepreneurs who are in the same position as me — from all over the world,” he said.

He hopes to develop his business plan while there and to launch the business in the next 12 to 18 months. Hanson can see manufacturing the devices in Maine.

“The whole way through this, even learning how to build prototypes and get things 3-D printed and send circuit boards out to be built, they’ve all been new steps to me,” Hanson said. “Each time it’s been, well, what do I have to do next and what do I have to learn to be able to take that next step, and then figuring it out.”

kskelton@sunjournal.com

Jon Hanson

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