Asad Madni and the Lifesaving Sensor: His pivot away from defense led to a tiny tuning fork that helped prevent SUV rollovers and plane crashes

In 1992, Asad M. Madni sat at the helm of BEI Sensors and Controls, overseeing a product line that included a variety of sensing and inertial-navigation devices. Its customers were less varied-mainly, the aerospace and defense-electronics industries. And he had a problem.