Monday, March 05, 2007
Winners of Business Idea Competition announced
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Students with entrepreneurial ideas for Internet radio broadcasts in cars, better tracking of a personal exercise program, and a system for controlling household pantry inventory are winners in the first Business Idea Competition sponsored by the USI College of Business. The student competition was held as part of the college’s celebration of Entrepreneurship Week USA February 24- March 3. Sixteen students entered the competition. Winning ideas included the following: First place ($250) — Joshua Sackett proposed using WinAMP (a software program that allows computer users to play audio files in many popular digital audio formats) combined with the Internet signal available from cell phone towers to make it possible for people in cars to listen to any radio station that is broadcast over the Internet. Sackett said the concept would allow car riders to listen to stations nationwide, not just local stations, and could be used in case of a national emergency to convey information to people on the road. A nontraditional student, Sackett is a sophomore majoring in computer information systems. He lives in Evansville. Second place ($200) — Michael Patzer suggested a comprehensive system to track progress in a personal exercise program by using radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. Patzer said that most people do not succeed in a weight loss or exercise program because they do not set specific goals, or they may consciously or unconsciously enter unreliable data into software to track their progress. Through its automatic identification capability, the RFID tag would allow accurate information from a workout (such as distance run on a treadmill) to be transferred to a computer with software to report progress toward the individual’s goals. “It’s a way to quantitatively measure your progress — your real progress and not your fudged results,” said Patzer, a sophomore with a double major in finance and economics. His hometown is Evansville. Third place ($150) — Sheri Risner came up with an idea that solves a problem she faces every day. “I never seem to have what I need in my pantry,” she said, “Someone removes the last can of tomato sauce, broth, or vegetables, and suddenly the meal I had planned to prepare requires a trip to the grocery store. Her Pantry Partner would be a wall-mounted device to scan groceries as they come into the home and again as they are used. She said the in-home bar code reader would help people maintain household inventory, prepare grocery lists, plan meals, and save money. A nontraditional student, Risner is majoring in accounting. Other students who entered the competition received a thumb drive as an award for participating. Dr. Greg Murphy, associate dean of the College of Business, said the college’s vision stresses the development of an “entrepreneurial mindset.” “This competition is an early step in a larger effort to promote that mindset by encouraging students to think about and consider business opportunities,” he said. Judges were Ron Dame, retired president of Faultless Caster Corporation; Jack Buttrum, former president and owner of Swanson Nunn Electric Company; and Tom Koetting, retired vice president of sales and marketing for Peabody Coal Sales Company. A group of College of Business faculty and students will continue to pursue their interest in entrepreneurship by attending Indiana Collegiate Entrepreneur Bootcamp on March 22 at the Indiana Roof Ballroom in Indianapolis. The program is sponsored by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and the Indiana Venture Center. |
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