Barsema Hall’s De La Vega Innovation Lab hosted “Ideapalooza,” a full-day event for students in the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology (CEET) and College of Business, earlier this month.
The event offered mechanical engineering students creativity challenges, as well as guided workshops, to help them understand the business aspects of their upcoming Senior Design Program projects.
Teams explored concepts like value propositions and market opportunity, outlining a project’s feasibility, prototyping and formally pitching their ideas. The event culminated with an elevator pitch showcase to highlight the work that students completed throughout the day.
In addition, College of Business students were able to offer their insights and perspectives to the engineering teams. This interdisciplinary event allowed engineering students to gain confidence and excitement about taking the next steps in their senior design challenges.
Four workshop leaders helped the engineering teams consider the business aspects of their design ideas. Tim Michaelis, who serves as an entrepreneurship assistant professor at NIU; Federico Bassetti, who is assistant director for the Office of Innovation at NIU; and Nick Pohlman, who is a professor of mechanical engineering, generously gave their time as mentors for the event.
A special guest mentor, Madelyn Rutter, who is senior director of collaboration at TechNexus Venture Collaborative, joined the event as a workshop leader and mentor. With an unwavering passion for listening and a gift for uniting minds, Rutter bridges the worlds of corporate innovators and ventures as the driving force at TechNexus, which was a generous sponsor of the Ideapalooza event.
Each year, College of Engineering seniors go through a two-semester program called the Senior Design Project. They are asked to solve real-world problems for partner corporations, creating or improving commercial products or industrial processes that are sponsored by this corporate sponsor. Students use classroom knowledge to integrate concepts, apply theories and construct a prototype or process at the end of the spring semester. The students present their projects at the senior Design Demo Day event, where those corporate sponsors attend each spring.
“I learned that these engineering students, while they are so technically advanced, may not understand how their innovations fit into the context of the business that they are solving the problems for,” said Becca Husar, associate director of innovation and partner development in the College of Business. “We were inspired to coordinate a high-impact event that would allow engineering students to learn business foundations while giving business students a chance to help teams with their expertise.”
The event aimed to help students better understand why they were solving their problem and who they will be improving or solving the problem for. They also helped students to understand and better communicate their innovation and how their project fits into the overall business model, as well as the return on investment for each solution.
Jenny Redisi, ’91, director of NIU’s Professional Sale Center, and Jiten Sood, ’99, of real estate firm Newcastle Limited, served as the judges for the event’s showcase presentations.
“I was elated to see the interdisciplinary collaboration between the College of Business and the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology,” Sood said. “Product pitches are an essential experience every student should participate in to develop practical skills at the intersection of design and innovation with function and promotion. It was easy to see the passion, creativity, optimism, and confidence on full display within the high-functioning, fearless teams as they adeptly navigated obstacles and implemented feedback throughout the highly interactive platform.”
Senior Nickolas Giffen, who is also a veteran, having served in the U.S. Marines, was part of the group that won top prize at the showcase. The team pitched Giffen’s personal idea – to create a casualty-evacuation robot to be used by first responders and the U.S. military during wartime.
“I took a risk and presented a design idea based on my personal experience that I believe could be really successful,” he said. “I was shocked at just how much positive feedback I received at all levels. Not only did this greatly increase confidence in my idea, but it also sparked confidence in myself and my ability to take my creative ideas and pursue realistic, practical avenues for their applications. I’ve been riding high ever since winning first place!”
Senior Alek Lancaster was part of a group working for Trane Heating & Air Conditioning and is partnering with NIU to help improve its infrastructure through quantifiable change to meet the university’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.
“Our overall objective was to investigate the current HVAC and utility provider and conduct different assessments and come up with a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to evaluate current methods that NIU has in place,” Lancaster said.
The team’s research and behind-the-scenes work will help them to come up with a plan to later conceive and document a methodological approach to the university’s HVAC and utilities that will hopefully be implemented.
“My experience at Ideapalooza was both enjoyable and intellectually enriching,” Lancaster said. “It provided an opportunity to learn more about less-technical concepts and skills, as I do on a daily basis, and it showed that there is more to the world than just science and technology. The business world, to me, is underappreciated, and being able to get a glimpse of what it entails was eye-opening.”
“The engineering students were able to understand that technology alone cannot make for successful outcome,” said Professor Pohlman. “The value proposition, interplay of corporate elements, and proposing the idea are all critical elements that go beyond the equations, 3D models, and manufacturability of products.”
“Even with limited training and time to build complete story, they were able to touch all of the bases when making the pitch to the judges!” he added.
Juniors, seniors, and graduate business students presented throughout the day and floated throughout the room as consultants to support the engineering students. Management student Rachel Espinoza attended the event representing the management and business administrator student advisory board (MBSAB) and gave tips to the students in attendance.
“From this experience I was able to see that different colleges across campus don’t have much connection, which made it so meaningful to have been a part of this event,” Espinoza said. “I was able to tap into engineering knowledge and learn a bit more about what is going on in their building. We have some very talented individuals at NIU with awesome ideas!”
Management student Louis Petrie also served as a student consultant at the event.
“I learned that there are incredible opportunities for collaboration between business and engineering students,” he said. “I was able to guide one group through the process of figuring out their value proposition, which proved to be a lot of fun. I hope the De La Vega Innovation Lab continues to host awesome events like this!”
CEET Dean David Grewell was impressed by the collaborative experience.
“It was a source of great excitement to witness these students enthusiastically immersed in entrepreneurship, applying the skills they’ve cultivated during their years at NIU and within the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology,” he said. “These students are poised to make significant contributions to our region, state, and nation, actively shaping the future ahead.”
“In the College of Business, we are always seeking ways to bring new hands-on learning experiences to our students,” said College of Business Interim Dean Denise Schoenbachler. “Our Ideapalooza event was a way for us to branch out beyond our college and allow students from different disciplines to help each other build new skills. I am so thrilled that our De La Vega Innovation Lab is the perfect collaborative space to host these kinds of experiential workshops, and I look forward to partnership with other areas on campus to host these types of events more often.”
The De La Vega Innovation Lab will continue to have workshops, guest speakers and other events throughout the year that can help you with a variety of skills. All programming in the lab is open to students of any major. To find out more about open lab hours or upcoming student opportunities, go to go.niu.edu/innovation-lab.
If you are an instructor or student and would like your college to partner with the De La Vega Lab for an Ideapalooza event or another collaboration opportunity, please contact Becca Husar at beccahusar@niu.edu.
