Chuck Schaeffer ’94 is Revolutionizing Smart Buildings and Desktop Computing
Thanks to the energy efficient technology developed by Chuck Schaeffer ’94 and his colleagues at Thinlabs, Inc., smart buildings can now communicate with the people who use them and companies can receive significant savings on high performance computers utilizing Power over Ethernet (PoE) technology.
Chuck Schaeffer ’94 can attest to the fact that successful careers do not always progress in a straight line. But winding roads can often be the most interesting.
“I was a homebody who was good at math and liked working with computers,” he says, recalling the Commodore VIC-20 personal computer he once owned. “A computer engineering degree made sense, and so did Stevens – I wanted to be close to home on a small campus where everyone knows everyone else.”
While at Castle Point, Schaeffer was a member of the Gear & Triangle Honor Society, men’s volleyball team and Sigma Phi Epsilon, which included him among their Alumni of the Year. “The fraternity gave more to me than I could ever possibly give back,” he says. “So many memories, so many more learning experiences.”
During that time, Schaeffer also worked as an operations manager for Frontier Systems, as an IT services consultant for Matthijssen, Inc., and as vice president and part-owner for Tech-Cetera International Inc., an IT recruiting firm. None of these roles provided the career traction Schaeffer sought. Drawing on age-old creative traditions, Schaeffer did what artists do in times of personal turmoil: he wrote a song and – as the story sometimes goes – a music career was born.
Schaeffer produced two CDs, Living History in 2010 and Along These Lines in 2012, the latter reaching #37 on the U.S. Roots Country Radio Airplay charts. Between 2007 and 2022, he performed in more than 900 shows in 14 states, opening for major artists and Grand Ole Opry stars including Lisa Marie Presley, Roy Clark, Charlie Daniels, Dr. Ralph Stanley, David Allan Coe, Sonny Landreth, Hal Ketchum and Craig Bickhardt.
“I never intended to be a professional musician,” Schaeffer says with a laugh. “I used it to try to be like my fraternity brother Jim Alexiou and to make a few bucks, but my earnings went mostly to food and drinks of friends who would show up at my gigs.”
He received his break in 2007 when he joined Thinlabs Inc. as a senior engineer. “Thinlabs makes flexible, environmentally conscious systems,” he explains. “We specialize in all-in-one, low power, high performance touch screen computing solutions utilizing Power over Ethernet (PoE) technology. We have an estimated 60,000 systems worldwide (with offices in the U.S., U.K. and Australia). Our systems are used in manufacturing facilities, hospitals, college campuses, conference centers and more.”
“We just received our first patent, and Thinlabs and Cisco recently joined in an engineering alliance for our PoE computers, which run over a single cable at up to 100m from a reliable power source,” he continues. “We can run up to four monitors through a mini-PC at under 90W of power or an all-in-one computer with two monitors, also under 90W of power. Our products are perfect for new smart buildings, with the only necessary electrical outlets in a server room. We can also support the green technology concept, using a small fraction of the power and costs associated with standard computers.”
Schaeffer is particularly excited about the company’s brand-new headquarters in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. “I invite fellow Stevens alumni to stop in to see what we have to offer,” he says, adding that he hopes the proximity will make it possible to visit campus now and then.
“I was an assistant volleyball coach for a bit after graduation, but the late nights and long commute didn’t align very well with caring for infants,” he says.
He was on campus, however, in 2015 when the men’s volleyball team won the first team championship in Stevens athletics history with a 3-0 sweep of three-time defending champion Springfield. “It was exciting to see a crowd of more than 1,000 in the gym,” he says, “and I was so proud to see everyone jumping up and down around Coach Dorywalski.”
Schaeffer is nostalgic about his college days at Stevens, but he is also philosophical. “I was the first in my family to go to college and had to learn as I went,” he says. “I didn’t appreciate many of the resources available or people around me at the time. Taking the hard road, I succeeded, failed, was humbled and succeeded a few times over. I’ve been an engineer, a top 40 songwriter, pizza delivery man, family deli helper, medical bookkeeper and many things in between. You have to learn to ask questions, pick yourself up and try again.”
He adds, “My advice to current students is to get involved, network, lead; learn to speak in public; choose your words carefully; try new things, work both hard and smart. Tight-knit communities like Stevens provide amazing opportunities to achieve.”