Bing.

The sound fills the night air as Chris Owens opens the door to his Nissan 200xs. He plops down onto the driver’s seat, exhausted from a full day of classes. Owens reaches into his pocket, grabs his iPod and slides it into the dock he built into the center dash. As he lets it go, sure that it is secure in the holder, the dock illuminates, coloring the inside of the car with a bright, neon-blue light. The pressure-sensitive iPod holder is just one of Owens’ many inventions.

“[Inventing is] taking things and wanting to make them better,” Owens said.

Last spring, Owens’ professor, Bryan Laffitte, asked him to create a product that could be mass produced. Laffitte told his students in a freshman industrial design studio that they must make something using LED lights and batteries.

Owens created a shelf with pressure-sensitive panels that light up when an object is placed on them. The “illume” shelf received a lot of praise from Tech Blog, Engadget and other technological Web sites, but Owens said it still has room for improvement.

“You are never done designing something,” Owens said.

He gives all the credit to the College of Design and his professors, Laffitte and Vince Foote.

“That project wasn’t me on my own,” Owens said. “I’m just glad it got N.C. State more exposure.”

Hampton Freeman, a sophomore in industrial design, took the studio with Owens. But Freeman gears his inventions toward camping and climbing equipment. Freeman created a walking stick with lights built into the top and the middle. Eventually, he said he hopes to design products for climbing companies. Owens and Freeman are always creating, designing and improving upon everyday objects.

“Every now and then, when a product comes along, I’ll be more prone to make it rather than buy it,” Freeman said.

Owens encourages students to come and take some time down at the design school.

“Things are going on that are really amazing,” Owens said.