By Neil Nachbar

In the business world, people are accustomed to pitching a concept or a product under pressure. Engineers on the other hand, aren’t normally taught this skill.

Making a Pitch

Nine teams of University of Rhode Island engineering students had six minutes to convince an audience of their peers, faculty and leaders of industry that the product they developed in their Engineering Entrepreneurship I course (EGR 325) was needed to solve a real-world challenge.

Stepping out of their comfort zone, the four-person teams applied their newfound marketing and business skills in their presentation, which took place in the URI College of Engineering space at Schneider Electric on the evening of Dec. 10.

While displaying their prototypes, the students used slides and short videos to describe how their product is different than those that are already available to consumers.

After the groups finished their presentations, the audience had an opportunity to approach each team and ask questions about their designs and the thought process behind their products.

The interactions played a big role in determining the Audience Choice Award at the end of the evening, after the ballots were counted.

Cultivating an Entrepreneurial Spirit

The showcase event was a culmination of 14 weeks of learning how to turn a concept into a marketable product.

“It’s a challenge to develop an entrepreneurial mindset among engineering students, because they are taught differently in engineering curriculum,” said Assistant Professor Kunal Mankodiya, who taught the course. “It takes time and effort to get them to think about creativity and innovation. However, once they are on track, they come up with some amazing ideas.”

The course had three phases: exploration, ideation and creation. At each stage, the students had to attain a new set of learning milestones.

The exploration phase required the students to work independently to learn about the hardware and software that they would use. In the ideation phase, they formed their teams and learned about design thinking and rapid prototyping for Internet-of-things and smart wearables. During the creation phase, the students developed their business skills, which included their ability to demonstrate and pitch their prototypes.

Throughout the semester, Mankodiya made sure the students received plenty of support and feedback from mentors and coaches, including entrepreneurs, faculty and graduate students.

In addition to 11 mentors comprised of faculty and business experts, four doctoral students from Mankodiya’s Wearable Biosensing Lab, Reza Abtahi, Nick Constant, Josh Gyllinsky and Manob Jyoti Saikia, served as technical coaches.

On Nov. 5, Mankodiya had the professional and student mentors spend time with each of the teams. In 35-minute blocks, the teams met with one or two mentors, followed by a 45-minute networking session/poster presentation. The teams were also trained to do a 90-second elevator pitch before some of them went to pitch their ideas at the Rhode Island Business Plan Elevator Pitch Competition.

One of the guest mentors was Aidan Petrie, founding director of the New England Medical Innovation Center, which provides support to innovators and entrepreneurs in the medical technologies field. Petrie gave an opening lecture to the class in September.

URI Associate Vice President of Intellectual Property & Economic Development Michael Katz spoke to the class one day about what it takes to get a product patented.

“Although the students’ projects were in the preliminary stage at the time, it was good for them to learn about the patent process,” Mankodiya said.

Solving Real-World Challenges

The result of the students’ hard work was a wide variety of devices that addressed health or safety challenges faced by children, adults and seniors.

One of the creations was a toothbrush for kids, that made brushing fun by rewarding points through an app if they brushed for the correct length of time.

Another team designed a water bottle that tracks a person’s daily water intake. The bottle shines a light from the bottom, alerting the person if they are under, on track or ahead of the daily recommended amount of water consumption.

A small safe with a breathalyzer attached to it was designed to prevent people from driving under the influence. The user places their car keys in the safe and is only able to get them out if they register a blood alcohol content of .02 or lower on the breathalyzer.

The winner of the Audience Choice Award was a group that developed a fitness tracking app for people who are mobility-impaired. The objective of the app, named Walk n’ Roll, is to enable those with impairments to participate in fitness challenges with friends who don’t have physical impairments.

The winning team was the only group to have non-engineering majors on it. Shimra Fine, a second-year graduate student majoring in textile science, and Matt Delva, a junior economics student, combined their areas of expertise with those of biomedical engineering students Kiera Mantyla and Merci Ujeneza.

The team also tapped into the real-world experiences of one of its members.

“When we were brainstorming, I mentioned to my teammates that there weren’t any fitness trackers and apps that met my needs, as someone who uses a wheelchair, a rollator, and on rare occasion, a cane,” said Fine, who is from Silver Spring, Md.

Once the group settled on a concept, the next step was sorting out areas of responsibilities.

“Working with students from other majors, we figured out each other’s strengths and weaknesses rather quickly,” said Delva, a resident of Cumberland, R.I. “We didn’t have to waste much time with a feeling out process.”

Each member of the winning team received a Rocketbook Everlast reusable smart notebook as a prize.

Here is the list of the nine teams.

TEAM A – Brush Smart		TEAM B – Exo-Strength		TEAM C – BACSafe
Jack Cammarata, Biomedical Engineering		Nick Candelora, Mechanical Engineering		Andrew Crawford, Electrical Engineering
Zachary Carroll, Mechanical Engineering		Becky Edgerton, Biomedical Engineering		Jon Ander Iñiguez de Gordoa Pouso, Electrical Engineering
Alex Vasili, Mechanical Engineering		Alex Gray, Biomedical Engineering		Luke McConnaghy, Biomedical Engineering
Ryan Wilkes, Computer Engineering		Stone Jurczyk, Mechanical Engineering		Julia Sanossian, Civil Engineering
TEAM D – Go: DEW		TEAM E – Lights*Out		TEAM F – Walk n’ Roll
Jesse McVaney, Systems Engineering		Mackenna Dunn, Biomedical Engineering		Shimra Fine, Textile Science
Sarah Leighton, Biomedical Engineering		David Edgar, Biomedical Engineering		Merci Ujeneza, Biomedical Eng. & French IEP
Brandon Williams, Biomedical Engineering		Harrison Timperley, Computer Engineering		Kiera Mantyla, Biomedical Engineering
Justin Jewell, Biomedical Engineering		HopeRose Puroll, Computer Engineering		Matt Delva, Economics
TEAM G – Guardian		TEAM H – Painless Packs		TEAM I – Sleeping Safe
Abed Alsasa, Biomedical Engineering		Lexie Duntzee, Biomedical Engineering		Nicholas Amore, Electrical Engineering
Ally Munch, Ocean Engineering		Nathan Guillemette, Biomedical Eng. & French IEP		Sam Charpentier, Biomedical Engineering
Evan Case, Electrical Engineering		Jake Matte, Biomedical Engineering		Kate O’Rourke, Biomedical Engineering
Lyndsay Castle, Mechanical Engineering		Maddie Setear, Biomedical Engineering		Andrew Strong, Biomedical Engineering