2013 Olin College Entrepreneurship Projects

These are all the projects that were developed by the students of two of Olin's Entrepreneurship courses, the "FBE" (The Entrepreneurial Initialive, AHSE 1500) and the Entreprenuership Capstone (AHSE 4570.)

Students developed product or service ideas during the first few weeks of the course. They were asked to follow a rough "Lean Startup" methodology and were specifically told not to actually build the product, prototype, or mockup. Instead of thinking of whether they could build it, they were asked to determine whether they should build it:

  • Who are the customers? Can we find them to talk to them?
  • Is this just a nice to have? Do they have an actual pain? Are they willing to pay for a solution?
  • Can we actually figure out how to build this? What would it cost to build?
  • And could we design a working growth model?

The two classes, FBE and E! Capstone, were taught by Pito Salas at Olin College of Engineering in the Spring of 2013.


Fleet: "Modular athletic shoes for the recreational athlete."

Daniel Leong Adit Dhanushkodi Doyung Lee Saarth Mehrotra

We are creating modular shoes that can be adapted for use in a variety of sports.
  • These shoes will have three compoents: An upper, which comprises a minimalist running shoe, a midsole, which can be adjusted for different sports, and a tread, which can be adjusted according to what surface one is playing on.
  • The uppers will made of durable material, such that when shoes wear out one only needs to purchase new treads and midsoles instead of a completely new shoe.

Flot: "Get cleaner greener: Reinventing the shower"

Katherine Tran, Maggie Su, Maura Cosman, David Zhu

Flöt is offering a new way for colleges and their students to reduce their water consumption:
  • We are redesigning a shower system that actively notifies users about how the amount of water used is affected by the time spent in the shower.
  • Get cleaner greener - let's reinvent the shower

The Archnemesis Network: "Live-action adventure"

Jennifer Anderson: jennifer.anderson@students.olin.edu Emily Tumang: emily.tumang@students.olin.edu Justin Poh: justin.poh@students.olin.edu

The Archnemesis Network allows users to:
  • Sign up for a regularly occurring role-playing activity
  • Navigate the scenario with the help of riddles and clues either left physically at a location or sent via text message to the user’s phone
  • Collaborate with other users in order to complete missions
  • Join a community of users who contribute ideas and resources to help conduct missions
  • Develop their own missions with the option of submitting them for the network to organize

Treadware: "Biometric feedback devices for training athletes"

Bill Warner: william.warner@students.olin.edu; Jacob Kingery: jacob.kingery@students.olin.edu; Victoria Preston: victoria.preston@students.olin.edu

The project is the conceptual design of a hardware-software application which provides biometric feedback to training athletes in order to assess performance.
  • On the hardware side of things, a thin shoe insert weaved of pressure sensors collects data from the weight distribution of the feet and sends it to a transmitter strapped to the ankle or shoe.
  • The transmitter sends this data to a smart device for live or later review of heat maps generated by the data gathered by the shoe inserts.

Moosic: "Lets young children compose music in a fun, easy way."

Mandy Korpusik , Seungwhan Moon

  • Moosic is an innovative tablet application that allows 6- to 10-year-old children to compose music in a fun, easy way.
  • Children simply draw shapes to compose the melody, and Moosic chooses chord progressions that sound beautiful with the drawn melody.
  • Teachers can incorporate Moosic into a project-based curriculum, and parents can give their kids something fun to do that is also educational.

eCycle: "A modern take on the biking experience"

Jamie Gorson ,jamie.gorson@students.olin.edu., Jessica Sutantio ; Sean Karagianes ; Stephanie Northway

  • changing the 'biking experience' with our line of products
  • products include: mobile app, phone mount, generator
  • mobile app has bike safe routes, fitness data, and biking info
  • generator has sensors to give information to the app

Making Money No Matter Where You are in Life: "Managing and Investing 101"

Sarah Mathew

A paper about the importance and know how of handling money with the backdrop of the income disparity of the United States.

PowerView: "Institution-level energy telemetry"

Noam Rubin, noam.rubin@students.olin.edu

  • Institution-level plug-and-play power measurement solution
  • Simple WiFi enabled adapters can be installed almost anywhere
  • Offsite servers crunch power usage data, provide custom real-time analytics
  • Instantaneous feedback helps institution members control their power usage

Breadcrumbs: "Get focused recommendations that will make you feel like a local in no time!"

Eun (Abe) Kim | abekim0607@gmail.com Geoff Pleiss | geoffrey.pleiss@students.olin.edu Keely Haverstock | keely.haverstock@students.olin.edu Riley Butler | reilly.butler@students.olin.edu

  • Location-based suggestions for your next location
  • Gives you a limited number of suggestions
  • After time, gets smarter (gets to know you better)

AlertDrive: "AlertDrive improves safety on the road by preventing drivers from falling asleep."

Eerik Helmick eerik.helmick@students.olin.edu

  • iPhone enabled app and hardware to recognize and track eye movement
    • keeps drivers awake and alerts them when they appear to be drowsy
      • integration with social media

ScriptStick: "An embeddable platform for developers to make internet connected physical devices"

Tim Ryan - tim@timryan.org Jon McKay - johnnyman727@gmail.com

  • Small, ubiquitous, connected devices will be the platform of the future.
  • Web developers are interested in creating these devices but are alienated by complex workflows and unideal hardware.
  • We believe the key to making that platform successful is to create an embedded platform that is programmable in JavaScript - the language of the web.
  • Chosen for Highland Capital Summer program
  • Will launch a KickStarter in July 2013.

Nassarius: "Connect.Customize.Create"

Ambika Goel Ambika.Goel@students.olin.edu Chelsea Bailey Chelsea.Bailey@students.olin.edu

We are creating a website that will focus completely on connecting consumers with custom jewelry makers.
  • These jewelry makers will be hobbyists who have had trouble finding an audience and will discover a whole new market with our help.
  • Through our site jewelers will find forums and a community to interact with.
  • Customers will learn and participate in the process of making a piece of jewelry.

PreHeat: "The Automatic Windshield Defroster"

Ben Kahle Cameron Anderson Paul Titchener John Sakamoto

  • Sun-shade style product embedded with Nichrome wire, which is attached to the inside of the windshield overnight
  • Turns on automatically in order to heat a windshield with a minimum of effort
  • Eases morning commute and reduces stress and frustration

Sunrise Blinds: "Sunrise on Demand."

Elizabeth Doyle - elizabeth.doyle@students.olin.edu Kathryn Lau - kathryn.lau@students.olin.edu Claire Barnes - claire.barnes@students.olin.edu

  • Program the sunrise.
  • Blackout blinds that light up the room when you want to wake up.
  • Targeted towards non-standard shift workers.

eVo Ascent: "Rethinking the design of mountaineering backpacks"

Rob Sobecki

  • Designing a new line of mountaineering backpacks using advanced materials
  • Current lightweight backpacks have significant trade-offs with durability and utility
  • Carbon fiber and other materials allow for new innovations in high-end lightweight backpack design that improve functionality
  • Users are willing to pay a significant premium for lightweight reliable designs

The Empty Sensor: "We have the solution to the world's most awkward problem--The Empty Sensor."

Philicia Chow, philicia.chow@gmail.com Carly Ingrao, carly.ingrao@students.olin.edu

Our product is an LED alert system built in with your toilet paper roll, which blinks noticeably at you so that you will never sit down on the toilet without any toilet paper.
  • - The product uses an IR pulse to detect the "thickness" of the toilet paper roll, and in turn blinks when the thickness becomes too low.
  • It is battery powered and self-contained.
  • It only replaces the rod of the toilet paper roll that already exists in every household

ChowTour: "Bringing foodies and chefs together"

Aman Kapur, amankapur91@gmail.com Rachel Biniaz, Rachel.Biniaz@students.olin.edu Nathan Tsai, nathan.tsai@students.olin.edu Brendan Caporaletti, Brendan.Caporaletti@students.olin.edu

  • Foodies go on tours with guided and created by local chefs
  • Chefs get a chance to earn on the side as well as showcase their passion for food
  • A simple application showing a listing of chef provided tours for which foodies sign up.
  • The chefs and the restaurants involved receive a cut of the revenue from the tours.

ForeverCollar : "GPS Pet Collar"

Anne Wilkinson , Michael Resnick , Ankeet Mutha , Elizabeth Duncan

The ForeverCollar is a collar add-on that uses cutting-edge GPS technology to track your pet's location. ForeverCollar is:
  • Google Maps supported
  • able to text owner if their pet leaves their house
  • under 10 grams in weight
  • no monthly charges (unlike competitors)

Motion Motivation: "MotionMotivation is a smartphone app that helps users maintain a healthier lifestyle by being more active. "

Kyle McConnaughay; kyle.mcconnaughay@students.olin.edu Tenzin.Choetso; tenzin.choetso@students.olin.edu Mitchell.Kwock; mitchell.kwock@students.olin.edu

Motion Motivation:
  • monitors the user's movement to provide feedback on their activity levels
  • engages the user with no input to encourage movement
  • tracks progress towards movement goals over time (day/week)
  • combines the convenience of a smartphone with the intimacy of a personal trainer to encourage people to move more

JumpSpot: "There's a whole world out there. Jump in!"

Jasper Chen | jasper.chen@students.olin.edu, Antonia Elsen | antonia.elsen@students.olin.edu, Thomas Nattestad | thomas.nattestad@students.olin.edu William Saulnier | william.saulnier@students.olin.edu

JumpSpot is an event app that focuses on the creation, planning and organization of events around Olin.
  • JumpSpot features a list view and a map view.
  • Events are organized by location, time, and type of activity.

Connected: "Appliance telemetry and data analytics"

Arjun Aletty arjun.aletty@students.olin.edu

  • Low cost hardware and back-end allows appliance manufacturer to seamlessly connect devices to software, internet, and receive usage data
  • Provide data and design consulting services with the data provided to appliance manufacturers
  • Provides the appliance industry with unprecedented usage data and control of devices after leaving store shelves.

The Emergence and Opportunities of the Sharing Economy: "A Primer for anyone interested in the Sharing Economy space"

Sam Yang, syangam@gmail.com

  • Traces the emergence of the Sharing Economy
  • Details Four C's, common themes of successful ventures in the space
  • Discusses present opportunities in the space
  • Opens a discussion for the future of the Sharing Economy

CircuitVision: "Visual heat-based circuit debugging"

Josh Langowitz joshua.langowitz@students.olin.edu Ert McMullen robert.mcmullen@students.olin.edu Michael Searing michael.searing@students.olin.edu

  • We use thermographic ink and liquid thermal crystals in easy to apply stickers which can be applied to integrated circuits in order to detect their heat signatures.
  • Reversible color changes at low temperatures indicate that a circuit is getting power and heating up, and irreversible color change stickers indicate when a component has exceeded its operating temperatures and is burned out
  • This enables a circuit builder to easily debug and see which components are not getting any power and which have been burned out and need to be replaced.