American History, Unfiltered: Thomas David Petite

 

American History, Unfiltered: A post series highlighting people from traditionally marginalized groups who accomplished great things for America.

Did you read our post earlier today about the inventor of frequency hopping? If not, go check it out! It’s a great segue into this inventor, Thomas David Petite, who invented Wireless mesh technology. 

T. David Petite, a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa tribe, has more than 100 US patents pending, dating back to 1995. He is best known for his role in the invention of what today is called the “Smart Grid”. A true Smart Grid enables multiple applications to operate over a shared network, similar in concept to the way the Internet works today. 

So next time we open our smartphones or laptops and surf the web, we will think of how we would not be able to do this today without Hedy Lamarr or Thomas David Petite.