Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s College of Aeronautics and Engineering (CAE) along with LaunchNet and Design Innovation hosted Invent for the Planet, February 15-17, a competition designed to promote innovation and an entrepreneurial mindset among college students.
Jillian Eddy, an engineering technology student based out of Kent State’s Tuscarawas Campus, and Apoorva Jain, a fashion design student, took the grand prize of $500 at last weekend’s competition. While Invent for the Plant was designed by Texas A&M University, more than three dozen universities are now hosting the hackathon to inspire their students.
This was Kent State’s inaugural year for Invent for the Planet, which took place at the CAE and included about a dozen students collaborating in hands-on projects. The event concept is to gather interested students, populate the event with potential worldwide needs such as medical, energy or others and allow the students to self-select teams. Students were given access to select campus laboratories and faculty support as students tackled the ideas to create prototypes within 48 hours.
The end goal is to enable students to push their innovation and creativity, compete for the best design, gain practice with rapid prototyping tools, and encourage the best teams to use their designs as a jumpstart for forming startups. At the end of the event, the student team comprised of Eddy and Jain, developed an elderly tracking product/solution and were encouraged to pursue their design further.