About Us

E&M Lumsdaine Solar Consultants, Inc. was incorporated in New Mexico in 1979 and has been registered for operation in Tennessee since 1982 and in Michigan since 1985.

For the first few years, the Corporation's main focus was on passive solar home design and energy conservation— an award in a national design competition sponsored by DOE/HUD provided the start-up funds. A research project through the New Mexico Energy Department resulted in a popular manual for passive solar home design. As a subcontractor of Stone and Webster, the energy-efficient design of a visitor's center for the photovoltaic demonstration facility in Lovington, New Mexico was created. Also, a design of a residence was included in the passive solar home portfolio of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

The corporate vision was always to go beyond theory to simple and practical applications, in direct response to customer requests. Thus a math review short course for engineers in industry was developed which included software. Software tools for learning heat transfer were also written and coordinated with the Heat Transfer textbook by Lindon Thomas. The math review material was then customized for the automobile industry and resulted in a noise-harshness-vibrations short course offered for many years in the Detroit area.

The Corporation took a new direction when the American Supplier Institute requested a manual for teaching engineers how to think more creatively. This work was expanded to incorporate the entire creative problem solving process and resulted in customized workshops for industry (such as ASI, EDS, Alcoa, Dana, Ford-USA, Ford-UK, and Visteon). To enable students to graduate with the skills required by industry, creative problem solving textbooks, programs, and courses were developed and taught for the Lucas County Schools in Ohio, as well as engineering freshmen, the Governor's Institutes (gifted high schools seniors) and the Saturday Academy (students from grade 6 on up and their parents and teachers) at the University of Toledo. The Herrmann Brain Dominance model and Instrument (HBDI) soon became integrated with creative problem solving and added a broader emphasis on communication and teamwork. More recently, materials with direct applications to engineering design and to entrepreneurship have been developed.

Many workshops were taught for faculty in engineering, business, and technology (some sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the American Society for Engineering Education), such as at the University of Cincinnati, South Dakota School of Mines, Southern University, Loyola-Marymount University, Michigan Technological University, Wright State, Spring Arbor University, Lawrence Tech, Central Michigan University, Chung Yuan Christian University (Taiwan), the University of Pretoria (South Africa), National Taiwan Normal University, and Northern Michigan University. Other interesting projects were with engineering and technology students at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, electrical engineering students at Michigan Tech, management students at St. John's University, and staff and junior students at Henry Ford Academy in Dearborn, as well as with staff at Marquette General Hospital, the membership of Houghton Baptist Church (as part of developing a strategic plan and building program) and MSC or MBA students at the University of Nottingham (UK, Singapore, Malaysia).

The Corporation has remained small, flexible, and true to its vision. Our aim is still to teach and encourage people to think creatively and then apply creativity to achieve a permanent change to truly achieve innovation— personally and organizationally! We are willing to travel almost anywhere to meet your needs for customized training and materials in creative thinking and problem solving.