Entrepreneurship

Mechanical engineering entrepreneurs take home prizes in 2023 Lab Venture Challenge

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 15:44:19 +0000

Mechanical engineering entrepreneurs take home prizes in 2023 Lab Venture Challenge Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/13/2023 - 08:44

Five of the winning teams include students or faculty from the Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering. LVC grants are funded by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade Advanced Industries Program, as well as Venture Partners at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� and the Chancellor’s Innovation Fund.

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Innovations from faculty brought to market by new deep tech startup creator Embark

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 16:02:10 +0000

Innovations from faculty brought to market by new deep tech startup creator Embark Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/15/2023 - 10:02

Embark aims to connect business minds outside the university with breakthrough inventions emerging from ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� research labs to bring them to market and unleash the full impact of ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� research into the world.

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New program Embark to pair entrepreneurs with ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� technologies

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 22:50:22 +0000

New program Embark to pair entrepreneurs with ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� technologies Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/13/2023 - 16:50

The Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator matches business minds outside the university with breakthrough inventions created within its walls—and provide those ventures with funding.

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Grant will expand entrepreneurial opportunities for partnership program students

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 17:08:23 +0000

Grant will expand entrepreneurial opportunities for partnership program students Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/13/2023 - 11:08

Michael Lock Swingen

The Engineering Partnership Program was recently awarded a VentureWell Grant that will help make innovation and entrepreneurship a key feature of the program.

The program is a collaboration between the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering and Western Colorado University (WCU), which allows students to earn a ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� degree while living and going to school in Gunnison, CO.

The funding will help create a formal pathway to innovation and entrepreneurship through curriculum and experiential learning, with plans to integrate into the broader innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem that is thriving in the Gunnison Valley, a collection of rural mountain communities in southern Colorado.

For example, a new course called “New Venture Creation” will pair students with local companies and startups, who will provide guidance and mentorship. Together, they will collaborate to solve complex, open-ended design problems based in a real-world context and community development.

New Venture Creation will be cotaught by David Assad, director of the ICELab, an entrepreneurship hub based in Gunnison since 2016. ICELab runs three accelerator programs offering mentorship, capital and connections to investors and business partners.

Two of the accelerator programs work with emerging talent in Gunnison Valley, and the third, named Moosjaw Outdoor Accelerator, invites outdoor brands from around the country to spend five weeks in Gunnison growing their company.

“The IceLab is open to every student at WCU,” said Cooper, “but we want the director to know the students in the Engineering Partnership Program on a first-name basis.”

Cooper also hopes that having experiential learning rooted in a real-world context will help increase the enrollment of underrepresented groups in engineering, including women.

Cooper said sometimes people need context to feel engaged. “Who are you designing this for? Who benefits? Who loses? Who’s not at the table when the decisions are made?” Cooper wants these questions to be at the forefront of every student’s mind as they engage in innovation and entrepreneurship.

One of the biggest changes brought to the program is a new required first-year course. Like the New Venture Creation course, “Introduction to Engineering Design” will design, build and test a product or system that solves a problem provided by a customer or company.

But the collaboration goes beyond Gunnison Valley. The Engineering Partnership Program has established a relationship with Diversa, a non-profit organization based in Bogota, Colombia, with the goal of incorporating environmental and community challenges in Colombia as part of the class focus. Through an extension of the course, called Mountaineers Without Borders, students will be able to travel to Bogota to implement their projects.

“It’s important our students can engage with innovation and entrepreneurship through a lens of social and environmental justice,” Cooper said. “Again, we want to make sure the students know who, and how, their designs impact real people.”

Cooper hopes these new pathways and partnerships to innovation and entrepreneurship will be particularly transformative for students hoping to launch a startup or company upon graduation. Ultimately, the funding from the VentureWell Grant will be used to help students, as they say, “stay in the valley.”

The Engineering Partnership Program was recently awarded a VentureWell Grant that will help make innovation and entrepreneurship a key feature of the program, which allows students to earn a ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� degree while living and going to school in Gunnison, CO.

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Alumni Spotlight: ShoeSense is off and running, with help from ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� entrepreneurial ecosystem

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 15:20:34 +0000

Alumni Spotlight: ShoeSense is off and running, with help from ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� entrepreneurial ecosystem Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/02/2023 - 08:20

Michael Lock Swingen

When Connor Winter (MechEngr’16) decided to pursue a Certificate in Engineering Management in conjunction with his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering, it put him on a path that would lead to the founding of his own startup company, ShoeSense.

The concept of ShoeSense is to pair a wearable sensor with a smartphone app that provides advice on what type of running shoes to wear, insight into the user’s running gait and exercises that will help improve their form.

The genesis of the company was Winter’s knack for utilizing the resources at his disposal while an undergraduate at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��.

Winter, who ran track and cross country as a student-athlete, pursued an independent study at the Locomotion Lab on campus, where he conducted a statistically driven analysis on how the right, or wrong, pair of shoes can drastically affect the biomechanics of a runner and their overall performance.

Taking that data, Winter developed a sensor that leverages the computational powers of an accelerometer, which measures the rate of change of velocity of an object, and a gyroscope, which measures angular velocity and an object’s deviation from its desired orientation.

Measuring the step of a runner 400 times per second, the sensor uses three axes of motion – vertical impact, braking force, and the acceleration of your foot laterally – to develop metrics that an end-user can use to improve their running style or avoid injury.

For example, the vertical impact of a single step when you run can amount to six to 10 times your body weight. That can build up over time and cause injury. However, it often takes four weeks for an injury to manifest. If the sensor measures an incremental buildup of excessive loading on a runner’s legs, the app will tell you in advance that you are at risk of injury and suggest a day off.

“The sensor can’t just give you numbers,” Winter said. “It has to give you a path to make better decisions as a runner.”

While at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��, Winter worked with Venture Partners, an office that helps to commercialize research done on campus. Through their training program in Intellectual Property (IP) Management, Winter patented his shoe sensor.

But that was just the beginning of Winter’s journey to founding ShoeSense. “It’s one thing to come up with an idea or product,” Winter said. “But it’s another matter entirely to bring that idea to market.”

The Certificate in Engineering Management aims to provide tools to understand the business framework in an engineering and technology environment. Winter found the class Entrepreneurial Product Development the most useful for him. In the class, Winter pitched his shoe sensor idea, and it was one of the few selected for the class to develop a business plan around throughout the semester.

Upon graduation, Winter took his product and his business plan and ran with it.

ShoeSense launched their website in December. A customer pairs up with a running specialist from the company, who helps them first determine what type of shoe is ideal for their stride and body type, according to the metrics. They then develop a training regimen designed to improve their overall performance as a runner. The customers range from a 60-year-old jogger to a 20-year-old professional marathoner.

As the streams of data come in, Winter is always looking for ways to refine the metrics. And as often has been the case, ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� helped give him the resources to succeed.

While using the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering's summer internship-for-credit program, Winter took on an intern who has become the company’s principal data analyst. Since then, the customer base of ShoeSense has continued to grow.

“��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� has been such an integral part of the experience of creating this company,” Winter said. “I couldn’t have done it without them.”

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Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Projects 2022

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 18:14:08 +0000

Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Projects 2022 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/13/2022 - 12:14

Since August 2021, more than 200 mechanical engineering students have been working through the design process from start to finish and have engineered solutions to real-world problems.

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Mechanical engineering seniors aim to sink purple sea urchin population with underwater vacuum

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 15:16:10 +0000

Mechanical engineering seniors aim to sink purple sea urchin population with underwater vacuum Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/06/2022 - 09:16

Rachel Leuthauser

Urchin Merchants Team Members

Josh Ayers – Systems and testing engineer
Dorothea French – Project manager
Heather Hunt – Logistics manager
Justin Kirchner – Financial manager
Jacob Lawrence – Manufacturing engineer
Zach Sorscher – CAD engineer

April 28 update: The team spent the last few weeks of the spring 2022 semester testing their prototype in the University of Colorado Boulder Rec Center pool. New video shows the underwater vacuum in action, from inside the prototype.

The 200 miles of ocean along California’s coastline was once filled with seaweed called bull kelp. The seaweed created rich, underwater forests until the population began to die out in 2014. In the seven years since then, 95% of bull kelp beds off the coast of California have died.

Urchin Merchants, a team of seniors in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, is tackling that problem by designing and building a large, underwater vacuum that can help reduce one of the bull kelp’s greatest threats – purple sea urchins.

“Our project is really aimed at collecting large amounts of those urchins and improving the collection rates of divers, which is not possible with the current methodology,” said Josh Ayers, the group’s systems and testing engineer.

The number of purple sea urchins living on the ocean floor has exploded in recent years. The population has grown by 10,000%, destroying miles of bull kelp since the urchins eat and live off the seaweed.

Researchers currently estimate that it will take 15 to 20 years to clear the urchin barrens. Urchin Merchants’ specialized suction device could increase collection rates by six times the current rate, decreasing that 20-year timeframe to under five years in a single location.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3hol-lOvCM]

“We knew we wanted to save the kelp forests and we figured the best way to do that would be removing purple sea urchins rather than planting kelp,” Project Manager Dorothea French said. “We thought we might try to build an autonomous, underwater robot, but that would take 10 to 15 years and we need a solution now.”

The prototype is 11 feet tall, with a large tube at the top that serves as a sorting system. The tube shuffles larger urchins to one side and smaller urchins to another. Any non-urchin material such as small animals or sand go straight out the top. On the other end of the vacuum is a flexible hose that divers can use to collect urchins on the ocean floor.

The team received insight from conservation organizations and professional divers to design this efficient vacuum. The divers wanted a system that was easy to use and inexpensive.

Urchin Merchants tested the prototype in the ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� Rec Center pool.

The seniors used marbles instead of urchins when running their first tests.

“The vacuum uses a highly efficient air lift pump that is able to collect large quantities of small objects from the ocean floor,” said Zach Sorscher, the team’s CAD engineer. “Think of it as a super tool that we would give to a diver to accompany them on their dives to improve collection rates.”

The team spent the spring 2022 semester building the prototype as part of their capstone project in the department’s Senior Design course. They are currently testing the vacuum, with the goal of getting the product in user’s hands.

“We just want to see an impact,” Josh said. “We want more urchins to leave the ocean because of us, whether that means someone pays for the prototype or we give it to a conservation organization as goodwill. It feels like we are doing the right thing either way.”

While Urchin Merchants has focused on the kelp beds in California, they acknowledged that the population boom is a growing issue around the world. There are thousands of acres of urchin barrens on coastlines from North America to Europe and Australia.

The team hopes their prototype will have a meaningful impact and inspire others to advocate for the environment.

“We just want to design and build a project that could help the world,” Logistics Manager Heather Hunt said. “We are using our engineering expertise to make a difference.”

Urchin Merchants recently won fourth place in the New Venture Challenge’s (NVC) Climate Change sub competition for their underwater vacuum. They will be competing in the full NVC competition and presenting their prototype at the College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Engineering Projects Expo on April 22.

Explore all 2021-22 Senior Design Projects

The vacuum, designed and built by the student team Urchin Merchants, could help save California’s underwater kelp forests by making it easier for divers to collect the purple sea urchins that are destroying the bull kelp population.

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Mechanical engineering team presents innovative solution to fight climate change, win funding

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 18:45:12 +0000

Mechanical engineering team presents innovative solution to fight climate change, win funding Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/09/2022 - 11:45

Senior design team Urchin Merchants, who placed fourth, hope to market a specialized suction device to divers and conservation groups that could help save kelp forests off the coast of California and ecosystems around the world from exploding purple sea urchin populations.

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Alumni Spotlight: Jeanne Barthold - TissueForm

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 16:36:26 +0000

Alumni Spotlight: Jeanne Barthold - TissueForm Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/10/2022 - 09:36

Jeanne Barthold is a ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� alumna and founder of TissueForm - a company that has developed a platform technology for the biomimicry of body tissues to repair areas of significant tissue loss or injury.

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Alumni Spotlight: Kevin Martin - unspun named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2021

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 20:20:13 +0000

Alumni Spotlight: Kevin Martin - unspun named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2021 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/08/2021 - 13:20

Rachel Leuthauser

Kevin Martin (MechEngr'16)
Header image: unspun jeans

Technology first prototyped in the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Senior Design course has been named one of the Best Inventions of 2021 by TIME Magazine.

Alumnus Kevin Martin’s (MechEngr’16) robotics and apparel company unspun has built a machine that 3D-weaves yarn into a seamless pair of jeans tailored to fit individual buyers. The machine uses topographical weaving to produce the pants in just ten minutes.

Martin hopes the technology will help reduce global carbon emissions by making the design, manufacturing and consumption of apparel intentional.

“The big north star that we kept coming back to is our climate,” Martin said. “Climate change is probably going to be the most pressing issue of our lifetime. Apparel is one of the dirtiest industries in the world because clothing that is never sold ends up in landfills or gets burned. We felt like there was a big opportunity to drive change.”

His company’s mission is to implement sustainable practices to ensure each piece of fabric that goes into making a pair of jeans is not wasted – which means each pair is made-to-order.

Ordering a pair of jeans from unspun starts with a 3D body scan. Customers can use their iPhone to scan themselves. The scan captures 30,000 data points for the robotic weaving machine to create the perfect fit.

The 3-D weaving machine is the technology that was originally developed in Senior Design. Martin, who graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2016, and his unspun co-founders sponsored a 2017 capstone project to build their first prototype.

“I don’t know that unspun would have actually existed without the Senior Design team,” Martin said. “We needed a prototype and they crushed it for us.”

After that capstone project, Martin advanced the prototype with help from a National Science Foundation grant and venture capital investment. Unspun is now on version three of the machine, which is what earned the TIME Best Invention 2021 accolade.

unspun's app that body scans customers for the perfect fit.

“The greatest feeling this year was to unveil the machine for the first time after not being able to talk about the hardware for four or five years,” Martin said. “To say to the world that we have developed this new method of apparel manufacturing called 3D weaving and it works.”

This is the second time unspun has made TIME’s Best Inventions list. The company was also given the honor in 2019 for the software that designs their custom denim jeans.

Martin, who grew up in Colorado Springs, said his interest in robotics started in high school. He built remote control airplanes and created his own version of a drone by attaching cameras to them. He then started a company building upon that drone technology.

At ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��, Martin pivoted the startup company to cable cameras, allowing the system to move around on wires and be safer for indoor filming.

“We came up with this whole plan to sneak into the Idea Forge to test it on the rafters in the evening so hopefully nobody would see us,” Martin said. “I remember sitting on the rafters when Professor Daria Kotys-Schwartz walked by and all I could think about was how much trouble I was going to be in. Instead, she said our robot looked really cool and asked how she could help. She was so supportive.”

Martin’s advice to current mechanical engineering students is to take advantage of that encouraging atmosphere. There are many resources for aspiring entrepreneurs and engineers to plug into.

“Go find those instructors and professors at the university that are doing incredible things,” Martin said. “Share your excitement with them and get their perspective. You do not need to have all ten next steps of your life figured out, but they can help you figure out the next one or two.”

Customers can order a pair of jeans on the unspun website or using the iPhone app. You will need the iPhone app for the body scan. Unspun jeans cost around $200, but Martin said CU affiliates can get 20% off with the code SKOBUFFS.

Kevin Martin's (MechEngr'16) startup earned the accolade for its 3D-weaving machine used to produce a seamless pair of jeans. The technology was first prototyped in the Department of Mechanical Engineering's Senior Design course.

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Entrepreneurship

Mechanical engineering entrepreneurs take home prizes in 2023 Lab Venture Challenge

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Innovations from faculty brought to market by new deep tech startup creator Embark

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New program Embark to pair entrepreneurs with ���Ҵ�ý�ƽ������ technologies

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Grant will expand entrepreneurial opportunities for partnership program students

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Alumni Spotlight: ShoeSense is off and running, with help from ���Ҵ�ý�ƽ������ entrepreneurial ecosystem

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Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Projects 2022

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Mechanical engineering seniors aim to sink purple sea urchin population with underwater vacuum

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Mechanical engineering team presents innovative solution to fight climate change, win funding

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Alumni Spotlight: Jeanne Barthold - TissueForm

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Alumni Spotlight: Kevin Martin - unspun named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2021

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New program Embark to pair entrepreneurs with ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� technologies

Alumni Spotlight: ShoeSense is off and running, with help from ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ�� entrepreneurial ecosystem