Have you ever been stuck in traffic because of people ahead of you slowing to gawk at an accident?
Graduate student Kai Mayeda has. When he was stuck in traffic for two hours on his way from campus to Irmo, he had an idea to design a quickly erectable screen that would cover the accident. He said his idea would “save billions of hours stuck in traffic and lost productivity.”
He suggested that paramedics carry these screens, which would be funded by advertisements that could be placed on them.
“A lot of times, rubbernecking causes more accidents, so you could justify it by safety reasons instead of just convenience,” Mayeda said.
That is exactly the kind of idea that Greg Hilton, Kelly Truesdale and Raghav Badiger of USC’s Center for Entrepreneurial and Technological Innovation were looking for when they organized the first ever Startup Engineering event Tuesday afternoon.
The event, which organizers say they intend to hold again, was designed for engineering and science students to share ideas with their peers that could potentially become startup companies.
“We have some really technical guys and gals out there, and we just want them to get connected with entrepreneurship,” Hilton said.
“There’s probably never a better time to be an engineer and talk about startups,” Badiger said. “Startup really shaped me as a professional, so if it were up to me, I would probably make it mandatory for everyone over 18 for five years.”
Students at the informal event were encouraged to give a 90-second pitch about any kind of idea. Although some students discussed projects they had already put a lot of effort into, students were encouraged to share even rough ideas.
“I think more than anything, we wanted to give you the opportunity to share your ideas with your colleagues and with us,” Truesdale said. “If everyone came in with a fully developed idea that they wanted to turn into a business, then we could retire.”
Many of the students said that although they were interested in a startup business, they were scared of the risk involved or they just did not know where to start. Hilton, Truesdale and Badiger said they wanted students to know that they were available to support anyone interested in a startup business.
“I’ve seen both sides of the wall, and one of the big things with me was the best colleagues I worked with either had a defense background — they worked with the military — or they had a startup,” Badiger said. “With a startup, you get to be very, very close to the market you’re selling, and so you get to know what you’re doing.”
He also explained that there are many protections against the risks of a startup.
“One of the best things about being engineers, especially in this day and age, is you can very easily validate your idea with a prototype before raising millions of dollars,” Badiger said.