What do online chatting communities, liposuction devices, and culinary skills have in common? They are all linked to the creative energies of Paly grad Bob Lash, who has been stunning the world of technology and medicine with his inventions for three decades.

Lash’s success can be traced back to his childhood years when he knew exactly which professions he wished to pursue. His dreams as a Paly student during the early 1970s were to become an engineer, medical doctor and founder of a medical device company. Spending time in Paly’s math and science office, where students interested in computers and science hung out, helped Lash to achieve these dreams and more. At Paly, Lash also enjoyed his role as a student system operator for Palo Alto Unified School District’s timesharing computer system that, unusual for the time, was open to student access.

What Lash remembers most from his years at Paly is its HP9600A programmable calculator, apparently the most powerful computing device in Paly’s math and science office.

“It used pencil-marked paper cards for programming, and displayed its output numbers on a small CRT [cathode-ray tube] screen,” Lash said of the calculator. “It cost thousands of dollars and probably weighed about 50 pounds, a far cry from today’s $10 scientific pocket calculators.”

Being exposed to many technology and science opportunities at Paly helped pave the way for Lash to move on to bigger and better things.

“Paly’s math and science programs were outstanding, and provided me with a solid foundation for college at U.C. Berkeley and medical school at U.C. San Diego,” Lash said.

Lash’s success can also be traced to his father, who is his main inspiration.

“My greatest influence has been my father, Dr. Harvey Lash,” Lash said. “He founded the department of Plastic Surgery at the Palo Alto Medical Clinic and invented a number of medical devices and procedures.”

Lash attended U.C. Berkeley’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science program, then moved onto U.C. San Diego’s medical school, hoping to focus more on the development of medical devices rather than actual medical practice.

According to Lash’s online autobiography at http://www.bambi.net/bob/bio.html, he created a surgical nerve stimulator for Stanford Hospital while still attending college, a fully automated hearing tester a year later, and a “Calorie Computer” that reports the number of calories one burns based on one’s actual activity. In addition, Lash developed a microprocessor-based Visual Evoked Potential (VEP) measurement system, which measures visual acuity in infants and helps in early diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis; an ocular controlled switch which allows quadriplegics to communicate via eye-blink; and a device to hasten the liposuction procedure.

Today, Lash says he is most proud of his involvement in the WebChat Broadcasting System, or WBS. WBS started out in the early 1990s as an educational online community start-up created by Lash’s friend and fellow Paly alum Michael Fremont. The system later included a chat interview series with figures such as Senator Arlen Spector, feminist activist Gloria Steinem, and children’s horror author R.L. Stine, according to Lash.

In 1994, a community chat function was integrated into WBS. According to Lash’s online biography, the WBS community was the first chat system for the web, and included five members during its first day online. The amount of membership grew to over 3 million registered users in 1998. InfoSeek acquired WBS when WBS was the largest community on the web at that time, according to Lash’s online autobiography. InfoSeek was then incorporated into Disney’s Go.com network, while WebChat was also integrated into ESPN.com and ABC.com properties.

“WebChat was my favorite venture,” Lash said. “It was a lot of fun and brought millions of people together for the common good.”

Lash has also been involved in a project dubbed BAMBI, an acronym for Bob and Mike’s Big Investment. BAMBI is a radio telescope developed out of Lash and Fremont’s interest in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI.

“The telescope has observed distant radio galaxies, supernova remnants, and the impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter, but it has not detected an extraterrestrial SETI signal,” Lash told the Voice.

Today, Lash works as the vice president of engineering at ViOptix, a company focused on developing “products based on Optical Diffusion Imaging and Spectroscopy,” according to the company’s Web site. Lash oversees new product development for the company and also manages ViOptix’s engineering team.

Lash’s resume appears extensive. Yet, as busy as Lash may seem, he still finds occasions for hobbies and pastimes.

“I volunteer at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View,” Lash said. “I also enjoy electronic hobby projects, playing guitar, and I make an excellent caesar salad.”

And with even more medical advancements occurring around the world, Lash seems very optimistic for the future realm of medicine.

“I believe that the world of medical devices is just in its infancy,” Lash’s online biography states, “and thanks to recent advances in microminiaturization, computing, telecommunications, and information sharing, we are on the verge of witnessing a new century of amazing innovation.”