Brown Entrepreneurs Storm Silicon Valley

Ten Brown students will venture to Silicon Valley January 13th - 18th to launch the inaugural Brown University West Coast Accelerator. These student entrepreneurs will meet dozens of like-minded alumni and supporters from companies such as Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp., Google, Facebook and Stanford’s StartX. The lucky ten will hone their business concepts through hands on marketing and technical training. They’ll explore funding opportunities through introductions to Brown alumni with the Band of Angels and Mohr Davidow Ventures. For these ten students, this trip is the opportunity of a lifetime to accelerate their ventures. With one week until show time, students are diligently re-working business models, perfecting pitches, and hosting all-night hackathons to create viable products. The inaugural class exemplifies what is uniquely Brown - a mindset to change the world in meaningful and creative ways. Meet the teams:

Determined to transform political engagement in the United States, Joschka Tryba ’12 and Max Fowler founded LoveGov, an online hub for every citizen to understand and engage in politics, from a local to federal level.

Will Barkeley ’16, the son of a deaf-blind mountain climber and marathon runner, has created Elevate, the next Nike for athletic apparel and equipment, dedicated to serving and recognizing disabled athletes like his father.

Exersaur tackles childhood obesity with a dinosaur avatar watch and a social gaming experience. Founded and led by Shawn Medford ’12, Roseanne Fleming ’12, Mark Buller Ph.D. candidate, and Ryan Sailor ’13, Exersaur fights childhood obesity with some fun.

Luke Sherwin '12, Neil Parikh '11, Giles Holt RISD '14, Gabe Flateman '12 and Chris Smothers '11 are disrupting e-commerce with Consignd, a new kind of platform for retail consignment. Consignd allows anyone to consign to or buy from influential content creators.

After spending years preparing for Taiwan preparatory exams, Sabrina Yu '15 co-founded gsuccess, a series of mobile applications to help test-takers in the greater China area conquer standardized exams on-the-go with little cost.

Will Hewson ’14, Gaurav Nakhare '15, and Daniel Hackney ’14 are jazzing up the tedious purchasing headache for consumer durables. They’ve taken their experiences in quick-service management and home-improvement sales to create durgood, an independent online product recommendation tool for durable goods

Brown University has had a long and fruitful history with entrepreneurship with alumni that include the founders of CNN, Nantucket Nectars, National Public Radio, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Ariba, House of Air, Slideshare, and many others. In 2012, Forbes Magazine ranked Brown 13th in the nation for entrepreneurship. Brown is the up and coming University for innovation.

Conceived by Brown alumnus and Trustee Emeritus Jonathan Speed ’84, and planned by the Brown Entrepreneurship Program in partnership with the School of Engineering, the Business, Entrepreneurship and Organizations program, the Swearer Center for Public Service, and the Development Office, the West Coast Accelerator will expand the University’s entrepreneurial footprint to the Silicon Valley, building essential bridges between the University and its many successful West Coast alumni entrepreneurs. A visit to the nation’s technological capital will catalyze the University and Providence’s resources for entrepreneurs.

The spirit which epitomizes the University’s student body is that of an activist and creator. Unsatisfied with the world as it is, students at Brown eagerly seek opportunities to initiate improvements via new knowledge and ways of thought. The Brown Entrepreneurship Program is bringing this mission to new heights this winter. Look for updates and highlights of the Accelerator in coming months at brownep.org

By Elizabeth Weber

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18 Students Inducted in Tau Beta Pi at Brown

Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, inducted 18 new members into the Rhode Island Alpha chapter at Brown University on Saturday, December 8. Ten juniors were inducted along with eight seniors.

Among the ten juniors elected were: Christy Chao ’14, Joshua Cohen ’14, Katherine DeSimone ’14, Conan Huang ’14, Daniel Jacobson ’14, Ramya Mahalingam ’14, Ryan McKeown ’14, Alisa Owens ’14, Rei Ukita ’14, and Jay Young ’14.

The eight seniors elected included: Matthew Barnes ’13, Alexander Berg ’13, Ian Brownstein ’13, Elliot Creager ’13, Paula Dixon ’13, Matthew Lim ’13, Therice Morris ’13, and Stephen Palazola ’13.

Tau Beta Pi, founded in 1885, is the second oldest Greek-letter honor society in America; the oldest is Phi Beta Kappa. While Phi Beta Kappa is restricted to students in the liberal arts, Tau Beta Pi is designed to “offer appropriate recognition for superior scholarship and exemplary character to students in engineering.”

In order to be inducted into the prestigious honor society, juniors must rank in the top eighth of their class and seniors must rank in the top fifth of their class. Graduate students who have completed at least 50% of their degree requirements and who rank in the top fifth of their class are also eligible to become candidates for membership.

The Rhode Island Alpha chapter is not only an honor society to pay tribute to outstanding students, it also provides a vehicle for these students to assume a role of leadership at Brown and to be of distinctive service. Tau Beta Pi members are active in leading engineering student admissions tours of Barus and Holley, and in a variety of other engineering student organizations.

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Brown Mechanical Engineering Senior David Emanuel ’13 Wins Elevator Pitch Contest with idea for a Backpack Lock

Brown alumni and students had another strong showing at the seventh annual Rhode Island Elevator Pitch contest, as David Emanuel ’13, a senior mechanical engineering concentrator took home the top prize. It was the fifth consecutive year a Brown student or alumnus has won.

Emanuel pitched Lock’d, which enables travelers to attach their backpacks to stationary objects such as hostel beds and train seats.

“With even just a little bit of funding we will fully develop a working prototype, enabling Lock’d to give travelers what they deserve: a worry-free and relaxing adventure,” he said.

David Emanuel

Emanuel is currently in Danny Warshay’s ENGN1010 class, “The Entreprenuerial Process: Innovation in Practice,” and he and his team developed Lock’d as their semester business plan project. Emanuel has also been active in the Entrepreneurship Program’s Idea Labs. The other members of Emanuel’s team are Amanda Lee ’13, Matthew Klimerman ’13, Joseph Stall ’13, and Mehves Tangun ’13. Stall is a business, entrepreneurship and organizations (BEO) concentrator and Tangun is an engineering and economics double concentrator.

The event, sponsored by the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition, was held at the Johnson & Wales University Harborside Campus and included 46 presenters. A total of $1,000 in cash prizes was awarded to the top 10 presenters. Out of the 46 to pitch, 14 had Brown connections, including 12 current students. Of the 10 finalists, an impressive six were from Brown.

Three of the top ten finalists were from Steve Petteruti’s Entrepreneurship I class, Engineering 1930G. Cory Abbe ’13, a BEO concentrator, pitched Sonacatch 3D, an all-inclusive trawl sonar system that keeps underwater fishing nets safe from harm. Other members of the team included David Killian, a computer science concentrator, Vanessa Munoz, a BEO concentrator, and Moss Amer, a BEO concentrator.

Teams from Steve Petteruti's Engineering 1930G class

Isha Gulati ’13, pitched PowerHouse, a power output meter that delivers key reading of power output of oarsmen. Other members of her team include mechanical engineering concentrators Elizabeth Gianuzzi ’13 and Francisco Oliveira ’13, and Alice Leung ’13, who is concentrating in electrical engineering.

Tim Kwak ’13, a BEO concentrator, pitched SEVA, software that will allow mariners to indicate their preferred content to be broadcast on a satellite network. Other members of his team included Ilana Foni ’13, a materials engineering concentrator, Ian Hovander ’13, a computer engineering concentrator, and William Gasner, a BEO concentrator.

The other two finalists are also active participants in the Entrepreneurship Program’s Idea Labs. Cliff Weitzman ’16, pitched BoardBrake, an attachable brake for longboards to make skateboarding safer. Sidney Kushner ’13 presented CCChampions, a nonprofit corporation he established to build a national network that links children with cancer to professional athletes.

Established in 2000, the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition recently was named one of the top 40 business plan competitions in the country, and has awarded more than $1.2 million in prizes to competitors developing companies across many industries. The contest required the competitors to pitch their business idea to a panel of eight expert judges from the Rhode Island business community in 90 seconds. The elevator pitch contest is a prelude to the annual Rhode Island Business Plan Competition, which features more than $200,000 in cash and prizes. Applications for the business plan competition close on April 1. Winners will be announced on May 2.

Previous Brown winners of the elevator pitch competition include: Julie Sygiel ’09 in 2008, Adam Leonard ’10 in 2009, Theresa Raimondo ’11 in 2010 and Kipp Bradford ’95 Sc.M.’96 in 2011.

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Brown University Engineering Ranked Second Among Top 10 Graduate Engineering Programs

Graduateprograms.com has released its 2012 Top 10 Engineering Schools, and Brown was ranked No. 2, according to the site’s student reviews and ratings. The rankings are based on reviews of more than 500 engineering schools as of November 30.

“We are proud to have been recognized among the top engineering graduate schools in the country,” said Director of Graduate Studies Tom Powers. “It is impressive that a program of our size is so highly ranked.”

The programs are ranked in 15 different categories using a 10 star system. Cornell University was ranked first with 8.8 stars, while Brown was right behind with 8.7 stars.

A Brown graduate student wrote the following about its engineering program, “I think that my program at Brown is very unique and I would not want to be anywhere else. I am very pleased with the value of the education, as well as the quality of the teaching, professor interaction, and the material being covered.”

According to graduateprograms.com, the Top 10 Engineering Schools in the United States are:

1. Cornell University (8.8 stars)
2. Brown University (8.7 stars)
3. Stanford University (8.6 stars)
4. University of California-Berkeley (8.5 stars)
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (8.4 stars)
6. University of California-Davis (8.3 stars)
7. Carnegie Mellon University (8.2 stars)
8. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (8.1 stars)
9. Princeton University (7.8 stars)
10. Purdue University-West Lafayette (7.7 stars)
10. University of California-Irvine (7.7 stars)
10. Northwestern University (7.7 stars)

“It is particularly gratifying to see that we are one of the top-ranked engineering schools among our Ivy League peers, a group that is somewhat distinct from many of the other highly ranked schools, who have a much more engineering and science directed focus,” said Dean Larry Larson.

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SWE Extreme Gingerbread Competition a Success

The Brown University Society for Women Engineers held its sixth annual “Extreme Gingerbread House Competition” on Friday, November 30. Thirteen teams of three to five students participated. The designs ranged from the traditional to the modern, and included a pyramid-shaped house and several circular/stadium-shaped houses.

Once again this year, the teams were challenged to build earthquake resistant gingerbread houses out of graham crackers, icing, candy canes, pretzels, gummy bears and other supplied materials in a one-hour time period. Houses were required to be hollow with a maximum wall thickness of one inch, and had to exceed 6” x 6” x6”. The houses were judged both for aesthetics, and amount of time without breaking on a shake table. Celebrity faculty judges included Dean Larry Larson, Professor Barrett Hazeltine, and Associate Professor and Associate Dean of the Faculty Janet Blume.

For the second consecutive year, the Band (David Emanuel ’13, Yukun Gao ’13, Rebecca Reitz ’13, Ian Brownstein ’13, Hannah Riskin-Jones ’13) won the competition.

Team Erica Kahn (Jill Pandiscio ’14, Amanda Doodlesack ’14, Allison Hojsak ’14, Julia Carr ’14, Alison Gale ’14) took second place.

Team MatLab (Daniel Gregg ’15, Pawel Golyski ’15, Daniel Audette ’15, Victoria Lee ’15, Samuel Friedman ’15) finished third.

All three teams received gift certificates to local restaurants for their efforts.

For a full photo gallery of the event, please go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brownengin/sets/72157632166921495/

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School of Engineering Hosts Second Annual Internship and Career Fair

On Saturday, January 26, 2013 the School of Engineering will host its second annual internship and career fair at Barus and Holley. More than 100 students and over 20 different companies are expected to attend.

Last year, more than 15 companies attended, including Analog Devices, DPR Construction, Draper Laboratory, Google, Hamilton Sundstrand, Instron, Microsoft, Oracle, and Teledyne Technologies.

“The first annual career fair was a success,” said Professor Karen Haberstroh ’95. “It proved to be an excellent opportunity for current engineering students and faculty to network with alums - both in terms of internship and job placement possibilities, but also as a mechanism for reconnecting engineering alums with the new School of Engineering.”

This year, the career fair has been expanded slightly – nearly twice as many companies are expected to attend, the fair is now open to sophomore engineering students, and companies are encouraged to recruit for internships as well as full-time positions. In addition, more time has been allotted for interaction with engineering students and company representatives.

More than 20 high-tech companies are expected to attend this year’s fair, including Adobe, Amazon, AstroMed, Avid Technology, Charles River Analytics, Cogent Systems, Dassault Systemes, DPR Construction, Gilbane Construction, Google, IBM, Microsoft, nest, NVIDIA, Oracle, QD Vision, Qualcomm, Raytheon, Sensata Technologies, Stanley Black & Decker, and Wistia.

The fair is open to current Brown School of Engineering sophomores, juniors, seniors and master’s students. Students wishing to attend must register by Saturday, January 19, 2013, using only a Brown University e-mail address at the following link: http://tinyurl.com/c2vuyyw

Tentative Agenda:
12:00 - 12:30  Lunch
12:30 - 12:45  Welcome/Opening Remarks
12:45 - 2:00    Company Presentations
2:00 - 4:00      Informal Conversations and Networking/Visit Company Tables

One extra incentive for students attending this year’s fair – prizes will be raffled off throughout the day. Students must be pre-registered and must be present in order to win.

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ARPA-E funds hydrokinetic work

Shreyas Mandre

A team of Brown University researchers has received a $750,000 grant to design an oscillating underwater wing that can capture energy from flowing water in rivers and tidal basins. The funding comes from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E), which funds breakthrough technologies that show fundamental technical promise but are too early for private-sector investment. “Marine and hydrokinetic energy is a vast renewable energy source,” said Shreyas Mandre, professor of engineering who will lead Brown’s effort with colleagues Kenneth Breuer in engineering and Heather Leslie in ecology and evolutionary biology. “The main advantage of hydrokinetic energy, unlike solar or wind power, is that the availability is predictable.” The wing would capture forces exerted on it by flowing water in much the same way airplane wings capture lift force from wind. “This lift force causes the hydrofoil to heave up and down periodically, and this motion can be used to generate electricity,” Mandre said. The award supports developing proof-of-concept for this potential technology, and complements current efforts to investigate the fundamental hydrodynamic mechanisms of energy conversion funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

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