As a Partnership for Excellence in Research and Learning (PERL) ambassador to the University of Indianapolis, Richard Calvert, Manager Energy Distribution Design at Citizens, is spending the 2018-19 academic year serving as a business mentor to a group of four juniors in the university’s R.B. Annis School of Engineering.
Their task: research and create an in-demand product and execute an investor’s pitch at the conclusion of the spring semester.
The third year of University of Indianapolis’ engineering program is focused on technology entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial mindset development. It involves interdisciplinary engineering student teams working with a board of advisors consisting of faculty, entrepreneurs and business leaders in the community. The goal is to help the engineering students become sensitive to opportunities and develop the capacity to create value to meet customers' needs competitively and profitably, as either a business founder or an employee.
The entrepreneurs and business leaders serve as mentors to the student teams, focusing on the commercial viability and success of the team’s ideas and invention. Throughout the two semesters, mentors will interact with their teams via gate reviews, progress updates and feedback sessions, with the final gate review serving as an investor pitch.
Calvert’s group of students – Jake Smith, Payton Staman, Allison Zwickl and Evan Parduhn – have chosen to tackle the ever-increasing problem of too many power cords by constructing a charging station for the seemingly endless number of devices we use every day. They call their project “Free of Charge.”
The students wrapped up the discovery phase of the project in October and will spend this month creating the product’s design. After that, the next steps will take place in the spring when the students optimize the design and develop sales strategies, then complete their investor pitch.
About the project, Calvert said, “I’m really looking forward to helping the students develop a product from concept to prototype and observing their growth. The University of Indianapolis students working on this project have a great opportunity to learn about both engineering and business. It’s an opportunity that I wish I had when I was in engineering school.”
We will follow up on the project in a spring 2019 issue of Engauge, sharing the outcome and future plans. In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about the project’s progress, email Richard at rcalvert@citizensenergygroup.com.
