Come to think of it – ‘White and pale’

Delta, 12-06-2008

At football club Sparta they were tired of messing around with ice cubes. Tarek Ghobar and Hicham Shatou of the techno-starter company, IcySolutions, developed a machine that can save them the trouble.

A bath of cold water to stimulate the bloodstream is just what athletes need to recuperate from a sporting event. That’s what many athletes believe, anyway, and the Dutch national speed skating team is no exception. If the skaters win medals this winter during the Olympics Games in Vancouver, in an event like speed skating where every millisecond counts, who knows, but perhaps their victory will also partially be thanks to IcyDip, a machine that, when connected to a water tap and an electrical socket, delivers a constant stream of ice cold water with adjustable temperatures. No need to mess around with ice cubes anymore.

The idea comes from aerospace and civil engineering graduates Tarek Ghobar (25) and Hicham Shatou (29), who now run their own techno-starters company, IcySolutions. Only three years have passed since they came up with their idea and already they’ve sold a handful of IcyDip machines, the latest one being to NOC*NSF – the Dutch Olympic & Sports Federation. Previous customers included the Dutch football club Sparta, and the German cycling team Milram.

In 2007 the two students were enrolled in the course ‘turning technology into business’, which involved finding applications for a patented technology. They were assigned a patent for making ice slurry. They weren’t particularly keen on making slurry, but they accepted the challenge. “We just wanted to become entrepreneurs,” Ghobar recalls.

After some extensive market research, the two budding entrepreneurs dropped the slurry idea and instead began concentrating on developing a machine that basically works like a fridge. “But smarter and more powerful”, Ghobar explains. “It contains control software that enables it to cool at the desired temperature very quickly.”

The first sports team to show interest was Sparta. “When we plugged it in a socket at the stadium all the lights in the arena went out. We’d blown the fuses. We quickly put sixty meters of extension cord between the plug and the machine to absorb the peak voltage. We were white and pale and had our fingers crossed.”

When the club’s technical director, financial manager and assistant coach arrived about a minute later, the machine worked fine. “The technical director liked it and asked us how much it cost us to make. We threw him a number. ‘Ok,’ he said, ‘leave this one here, send me a bill and go make yourself another prototype’. We weren’t prepared for selling at all”, Ghobar says, laughing.

Patrick Boucquez (“volgende maand 50!”) is vakkundig grondwerker van beroep. Hij is door zijn werkgever BAM uitgeleend aan de regio West. Hij heeft vandaag al zeven sleuven gegraven op zoek naar gietijzeren waterleidingen die er nog zouden liggen. Deze moeten worden verwijderd in verband met de aanleg van het tramtracé. Hij heeft er echter nog geen gevonden. De tekeningen waarop staat waar ze moeten liggen, kloppen niet meer na al het gegraaf in het Mekelpark. Hij heeft vandaag dus eigenlijk voor niks gewerkt…