Electrical engineering
Eckhart Toelle was just about to get his bachelor degree in electrical engineering. Osho Tyler had recently started his master program in materials engineering. It should have been an easy hike to the Hollywood Sign.
To better find their way up to the hill they equipped themselves with two flashlights. But unfortunately the two flashlights gave up early due to low energy efficiency and they ended up going in the wrong direction. They were devastated and concluded they never wanted to rely on this technology again.
After this incident they decided to develop their own flashlight that was more efficient regarding the energy consumption or at least had a better light output in comparison to a flashlight using normal light bulbs.