Ron Hickland Jr. created his own lane, merging a passion for engineering with a love for bowling

At age 15, while traveling with his father, a competitive bowler, Ron Hickland (ME’01) met a bowling ball designer who explained to him that mechanical engineers design the core of the ball and chemical engineers design the cover stock or the outside of the ball.

His keen interest in bowling coupled with his passion for engineering set him on a path to become a bowling ball designer, one of the rarest careers in sports. As the lead bowling ball designer at Ebonite International, a company responsible for producing 60% of all bowling balls in the world, Hickland befriended celebrities such as “Sugar” Shane Mosely and Swizz Beatz, who asked him to design custom bowling balls.   

Hickland credits organizations such as the National Society of Black Engineers and a college study group he organized at Purdue for teaching him how to collaborate with his team at Ebonite. “We would go back and forth until each of us understood all the core concepts,” says Hickland about the study group.

“The ability to work with other people is the difference between the average engineer and the engineer that excels,” says Hickland. “Some engineers don’t have those people skills, they don’t demonstrate the desire to go up to the next level or they are so wrapped up in the details of things that they can’t see the broader picture so they stay where they are. To get people to work together as a team and charge toward a common goal is the key.” 

In 2015, Hickland founded Creating the Difference, an education company that offers products and services to the bowling industry. As CEO, he uses bowling as a way to show STEM in action and make it relatable and entertaining for both students and teachers. Through demonstrations and experiments, Hickland is Creating the Difference in STEM by reaching students who would otherwise not be engaged in the subject. The company’s mission is to inspire people to identify and reach their passion through coaching, education, mentoring, and motivating so they can unlock their potential and create a difference.