Dearborn Heights resident Mohamed S. Hamieh received a patent for his invention of a seat which is expected to protect those involved in auto accidents from whiplash injuries.

Mohamed Hamieh: ‘I encourage every Arab American engineer to follow their dreams, and if they have an idea in their head they should follow through with that idea.  It’s true, there are sacrifices but at the end it pays off.’

Hamieh, an engineer at Ford Motor Company says about one million auto accidents that occur annually are related to whiplash.  When a whiplash occurs the neck rotates more than 21 degrees and it can result in either the total paralysis of a person or prolong pain throughout their lives in the neck and spinal cord. Features of the seat prevent the neck from rotating more than 21 degrees in a rear-impact accident while assuring the neck is in the proper position during the whiplash to prevent harm to it.

Hamieh expressed enthusiasm about his invention noting it would save insurance companies and Americans money while reducing the chance of whiplash, neck injury and paralysis by almost 99 percent. A whiplash is a common injury that occurs in a person’s neck following an acceleration-deceleration force. Although a whiplash is not a life threatening injury it can lead to a prolonged period of partial disability. Economic expenses related to whiplash account for $30 billion annually in the United States. The cost covers medical care, disability, sick leave, lost productivity and litigation. 

For Hamieh the real value of his invention is decreasing the amount of suffering in people.  “You drive a vehicle knowing that you are in a safer place. And when you know you’re driving a safer vehicle, you drive safer. The most important thing is eliminating suffering for human beings,” Hamieh said.

He started working on the invention three years ago.  His initial goal was to figure out a way to reduce the amount of harm that a driver would be affected by in a rear impact accident. A document also lists Zbigniew J. Orzelski and Joseph Benjamin as inventors of the patent.

A rendering of an active head restraint system, Hamieh’s invention.

He says Ford is currently using the invention on its vehicles and suspects Volvo may have purchased the patent from Ford. Although Hamieh invented the product, Ford owns it. He was required to sign documents that that ensure any invention created by him would be owned by Ford.

“To me the value of having a patent like this, honestly, it’s like more than any money can speak of,” Hamieh said.  “In fact, the number one concern as an engineer and I think I speak on behalf of every engineer is to make safe products for people to drive in. And to make safe products for everyday use.”

Developing the device wasn’t easy. Hamieh said attorneys were required to conduct research to make sure no one else claimed ownership of the invention.  The patent was published by the United States Patent Application Publication on Sep. 23, 2010. It took Hamieh away from his family. 

“Every project you want to excel in, there are sacrifices you have to make. Some of these sacrifices were time spent away from my family, going away for 16 hours a day for two years and working weekends and holidays. But again you get rewarded when you get recognized for doing something like this, especially being an Arab American engineer living in the United States,” Hamieh said.

 The 37-year-old is working on his doctorate degree in manufacture engineering at Lawrence Technological University. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Windsor Ontario in mechanical engineering, and his master’s from Lawrence Technological University in engineering management.

Hamieh is Lebanese and spent  his childhood and early teen years in the northern part of Lebanon. He later immigrated to Canada and came to the United States in 1998 to pursue an engineering career. Although Hamieh never set out to get a patent, he always wanted to contribute to society. “I always wanted to do something. I always wanted to feel like I contributed to society in one way or another. I wanted to help humanity in one way or another. The bottom line is if you dream or if you want to reach for the ultimate, you have to work hard to get that ultimate. You might not reach that ultimate right away, but at the same time you’ll be very close and this patent is a reward of the hard work that I did,” he said. 

Hamieh has had a passion for fixing things since he was a child. “It just comes natural and I’m very good in math. I used to teach mathematics at the University of Windsor. I guess engineering choose me. I did not choose engineering,” he said.

The patent shows how much Arab Americans contribute to society. Hamieh says a few radical groups have created a bad image for Arab Ameicans. After the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks, Hamieh faced discrimination at work because of his background. He ignored it.

“I was discriminated against, yes, being an engineer, but at the same time did I let that stop me?  No.  I’m not going to blame that person that discriminated against me. Am I going to blame every American that lives in this country? No, I’m not. I come to think that I’m a lot bigger than this,” he said.

Hamieh sees no limits to what he can accomplish. He has other patent ideas he has submitted, although they haven’t been published.

The 37-year-old says there were times when he felt discouraged, but the support of family and friends kept him going.

“We always reach for the higher ground and once you reach the higher ground it does not mean that we stop. No.  You have to be ambitious in life, and this country gave us the opportunity to be ambitious and we’re not going to take that for granted,” he said.

Hamieh called his wife his inspiration. “I truly give most of the credit to her for being by my side and supporting me,” he said.  They are expecting their second child, and have an eight year old son named Ali. 

When he first started working on the project he told his wife he was certain it would get published, because he had done research and found that the idea was not yet thought up. “I encourage every Arab American engineer to follow their dreams, and if they have an idea in their head they should follow through with that idea.  It’s true, there are sacrifices but at the end it pays off,” he said.