John Nottingham, co-founder and co-president of Nottingham Spirk, and Jason Ertel, engineering program director for Nottingham Spirk, will be the featured speakers for the Ohio Northern University Spotts Lecture in the Freed Center for the Performing Arts on Monday, Feb. 22, at 7:30 p.m. The duo’s speech, “Creative Collisions,” is free and open to the public.

Nottingham is the co-founder and co-president of Nottingham Spirk (NS), a leading business innovation firm with nearly 1,000 commercialized patents. The Nottingham Spirk “Vertical Innovation” process has helped client/partner companies earn more than $50 billion in combined sales.

The NS innovation team has co-created such award-winning innovations as SpinBrush, the largest-selling powered toothbrush line; Swiffer SweeperVac, the largest-selling floor care appliance; Scott’s Snap Spreader System; dozens of Dirt Devil/Hoover products; Sherwin-Williams Twist & Pour, named one of the Top 10 Package Innovations of the Decade; DualSaw; Troy-Bilt FLEX, the first modular outdoor power equipment system; Medtronic CardioInsight EC Vue, the first non-invasive electrocardiographic mapping system; ViewRay, the first MRI guided radiation therapy device; and HeathSpot, the world’s first retail telemedicine/medical device system.

Nottingham serves on the Cleveland Clinic Board of Trustees; Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) Technology Commercialization Visiting Committee; CWRU Think[box] Advisory Board; boards of Global Center for Health Innovation, Great Lakes Biomimicry, Cleveland Institute of Art and University Circle Inc.; and several private equity company boards of directors. Nottingham graduated from The Cleveland Institute of Art with a degree in industrial design in 1972.

Ertel, who graduated with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from ONU in 1999, is the engineering program director at Nottingham Spirk. His deep medical-device and corporate experience helps guide clients through the challenges of the innovation process, from identifying user requirements, concepting, feasibility, engineering and manufacturability to strategic planning and developing new revenue streams.

He is named as inventor on seven medical devices patents and another 23 utility and design patents in the consumer-product industry. Ertel’s career started at GE Healthcare, where he designed, developed and released several medical devices. His medical-device experience ranges from digital X-ray detectors and MRI surface coil technology to CT/PET scanners.

The Spotts Lecture series, celebrating its 30th anniversary, was established by the T.J. Smull College of Engineering in 1986 to bring distinguished speakers to the ONU campus on an annual basis to inform students of the probable professional conditions and challenges that engineers and computer scientists will face in the future.