The L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science has announced the return of the Invention and Creativity Competition, a contest to encourage engineering students to apply their skills to create commercial product ideas.

The competition will be held alongside the Raymond von Dran IDEA Awards Competition and the Panasci Business Plan Competition, according to the L.C. Smith website. The school announced the competition’s return in a Feb. 6 release.

Ariel DuChene, assistant dean for external relations in L.C. Smith, said the Invention and Creativity Competition was founded after a gift from Corning, Inc. This is the fourth year of the competition and applications will be due March 7, she said.

“Dean Laura J. Steinberg saw this competition as a way to encourage those students who wanted to pursue their ideas and test their technical ability to build something,” she said.

Tony Kershaw, assistant director of the IDEA Awards, said students had longed to gain more hands-on experience and an opportunity to apply their skills.

“The competition was formed to give students an opportunity to take what they learn in class and bring it to the real world with real cash,” he said.

One of the main things that judges will look for is the product’s application to real markets, Kershaw said.

“Besides the feasibility of the idea from an engineering standpoint, each student will have to develop a viable business model,” he said. “Just because you can build it doesn’t mean someone is going to buy it. Students who get that will go far.”

Incentives will not be an issue for competitors, as prizes and prototype funding values more than $15,000, according to the L.C. Smith website.  Kershaw added that winners will also receive funding to develop their prototypes as well as coaching and mentorship from IDEA and L.C. Smith.

Individuals and teams can enter the competition as long as one of the team members is an L.C. Smith student, according to the L.C. Smith website. All of the submissions will present a poster and oral presentation at the Emerging Talk Conference on April 12.

The competition adds a great opportunity to grow as a student and as an engineer, Kershaw said.

“Students who take a more entrepreneurial approach to their studies learn more about the real world, organically grow their professional networks and learn more about their own interests and passions,” he said.

Not only can the competition grow one’s network and add experience, it also helps create job opportunities, Kershaw said. He added that the contest is an opportunity for students to build up their resumes and stand out to employers as leaders and go-getters.

Engineering students said that the competition can also help apply the skills they’ve learned in class.

Benjamin Johnson, a sophomore aerospace engineering major, said the competition gives a taste of what happens after students graduate.

“After you graduate, you have to apply the skills you learned here through activities like this in order to solve problems,” he said.

L.C. Smith is hoping to spur creativity within its students during the competition and beyond, Duchene said.

Said Duchene: “Dean Steinberg seeks to inspire students to find creative solutions to global problems. The emphasis is less on a product that can be commercialized than some other business plan competitions and more on providing an outlet for students to test out their ideas.”

Published on February 13, 2014 at 1:24 am

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