Charles Trimble

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Charles R. Trimble (born August 20, 1941 in Berkeley , California ) is an American entrepreneur and founder of Trimble .

Career

Trimble earned a Masters in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1964 and planned to join Harvard Business School in Cambridge . He took a summer job at HP , where he stayed for 14 years; first to a biomedical research instrument launched in 1968 as the HP 5480 Signal Averager . Trimble is working next on a device for dynamic real-time tests of integrated circuits; A prototype was completed in 1971 until a tight financial situation led to the project being abandoned in 1972.

Trimble Navigation Inc.

In November 1978, he founded Trimble Navigation Inc. He left HP realizing:

"In my 14 years, HP had gone from being a technology-driven to a marketing-driven company to a resource-allocating company."

- Charles Trimble

Trimble had been interested in an abandoned HP development project for Loran C navigators and, after months of negotiations, bought the technology for $ 50,000 that it had on loan from his home. He left HP with two engineers from the project and founded Trimble Navigation with them . By 1982, they were selling Loran devices for around $ 1 million a year.

He also found the next line of business in the committee at HP, which had stopped developing navigation products that used the emerging GPS and were scheduled for completion by 1987. Trimble acquired the rights in the summer of 1982. With the help of the original HP design team, he created a basic GPS map that he considers to be his best engineering work yet. In 1985 Trimble Navigation introduced GPS positioning for offshore oil surveys and developed a GPS navigation sensor for aviation.

In January 1986, when only seven GPS satellites were in orbit, the Challenger space shuttle exploded . GPS launches were suspended - a three year delay. The seven satellites could only be located up to 25 meters, which was sufficient for offshore use. Trimble found new customers in the US military, which had an exclusive contract with Rockwell Collins until 1992 . Trimble developed a GPS memory for remote-controlled vehicles and position finders for the infantry, and created a small, rugged viewfinder that could be carried in the hand. The military ordered 1,000 trimpacks for $ 4,000, which were shipped in May 1990. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990, the US military ordered another 10,000 pieces.

In 1998 he left Trimble Navigation Limited to chair the US GPS Industry Council .

Awards

  • 1991: Entrepreneur of the Year , INC Magazine
  • 1996: CEO of the Year (Electrical Instruments) , Financial World Magazine
  • 1991: Kershner Award of the IEEE Position Location and Navigation Symposium
  • 2000: American Electronic Association's Medal of Achievement
  • 2001: NASA Technology Medal
  • 2002: Golden Gizmo award , San Jose Tech Museum

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Full Page Reload. Retrieved March 21, 2020 .
  2. ↑ What Is Signal Averaging? (PDF) April 1968, accessed on March 21, 2020 .
  3. ^ Charles R. Trimble - Ferris State University. Retrieved March 21, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b Mr. Charles R. Trimble. December 21, 2015, accessed on March 21, 2020 .
  5. ↑ 2003 Fellow Recipients. December 29, 2011, accessed March 21, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Trimble, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Trimble, Charles R.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Berkeley , California