Startups replacing summer jobs for students
(Reuters) – Eric Heinbockel recalls going on a Wall Street interview the day investment bank Bear Stearns collapsed. With his chances of landing a coveted finance job dwindling, the former Columbia University undergraduate began exploring more entrepreneurial options, eventually launching a business that lets customers build their own chocolate bars.
“We had a difficult time finding jobs,” said Heinbockel, 24, who founded Chocomize.com in August 2009 with two buddies and nearly $100,000 in financial assistance from friends and family. “I was offered three jobs – all of them entirely commission based with no support.”
Nearly a year later, Chocomize.com is on its way to becoming one of the first successful customized chocolate makers in the United States. The Cherry Hill, New Jersey venture hopes to reach $1 million in sales in its first full year and is gearing up to hire additional production workers.
Across the country, similar stories of entrepreneurial pluck have been unfolding among the ranks of recent college graduates facing one of the most sustained job market declines in decades. In June, unemployment stood at 9.7 percent, hovering at levels it has maintained since the recession took hold in 2008.
ENTREPRENEURIAL GENERATION
While the dismal outlook for corporate jobs is certainly a strong catalyst, academic observers said there are other factors at play, noting that 20-somethings today tend to approach entrepreneurship as if it’s their birthright.
“This is the most entrepreneurial batch of students I’ve ever seen,” said James Klingler, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at Villanova School of Business outside Philadelphia.
“These young people have tools that are literally like breathing to them that previous generations didn’t have,” he said, referring to the globalization of information and the advent of social media. “The other factor is we have raised these kids so that, no matter if they couldn’t hit the ball, they were heroes. They’re very optimistic.”
Jay Rodrigues, creator and CEO of DormNoise, a company that develops interactive calendars for students on college campuses, epitomizes the current crop. Rodrigues, still a full-time student who enters his senior year at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School this fall, raised nearly $1 million in venture financing for his company and now supports three full-time employees working from their homes.
“Adding those pressures on top of school was really challenging,” said Rodrigues, 21, who has also maintained a high GPA and even found time to pledge a fraternity. “I just kind of put my head down and chug forward.”
Student entrepreneurs often have an underlying social mission. Consider Yeoman Organics, a t-shirt company run full-time since December by creator Joe Levy, a UC Davis graduate who majored in economics.
Levy, who cultivated a taste for entrepreneurship after interning at beverage maker Hint Inc., raised less than $50,000 from family and has been operating the business from his parents’ home, learning production and design along the way.
“The economy made me want to do this even more,” said Levy, 22, who makes his organic shirts in San Francisco using subcontractors and wants to bring more manufacturing back to the United States. “I wasn’t and am not going to be deterred by naysayers.”
Neither was Blake Ferguson who co-founded Mangia Technologies three years ago, a business that allows sporting event patrons to text message food orders to concession providers from the comfort of their seats. The venture has raised roughly $2 million in seed capital to date and serves the likes of Salt Lake Stadium, Scottrade Center and Philips Arena.
“Clearly we are no longer in a culture where somebody goes to work at a company and 30 years later they’re still at the company,” said the 27-year-old Salt Lake City-based entrepreneur.
STARTUP SCHOOL
The prolonged downturn is forcing people to rethink their plans for a career characterized by steady paychecks and progressive promotions. In addition to MBAs starting new ventures, is an array of graduates possessing practical skills ranging from information technology to graphic design. Many of them, too, are hanging out their own shingles.
That’s the case at Westwood College, a Denver-based career school with 17 locations. According to a poll, last year 10 percent of Westwood’s graduates started their own businesses, up 2 percent from the prior year. “We really believe it’s partly due to the economy,” said spokeswoman Kristina Yarrington.
Entrepreneurs like Danielle Baker are making a go of it with little more than an idea and some determination, bootstrapping along the way. Baker, a 24-year-old recent graduate of California State University Northridge with a degree in English, had planned on becoming a teacher. But the economy and the arrival of her second child led to a change in direction. She decided to take a stab at starting her own copywriting business, specializing in the needs of companies creating an online presence.
“When we were starting this out, there was a period when my husband and I had it so rough,” said Baker, who recalls her bank balance falling to just $400. Over the course of six months she has built a steady base of three to four active customers and a waiting list of projects in the wings.
“Although you don’t have the security of a 9-to-5 job, it’s like you’re creating more security,” she said.
Reference Link : http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65M3A420100623
Courtesy : Reuters
Students harness vibrations from wind for electricity
May 26, 2010 By Anne Ju
Zach Gould ’10 adjusts the oscillator array installed on the roof of Rhodes Hall.
(PhysOrg.com) — The Vibro-Wind Research Group is working on an efficient, low-cost method of converting vibrations from wind energy to electricity.
A gusty day makes stop signs quiver and leaves flutter. It’s these vibrations a Cornell research group is harnessing and transforming into electricity for a new kind of energy storage system.
The Vibro-Wind Research Group, led by Frank Moon, the Joseph Ford Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, is working on an efficient, low-cost method of converting vibrations from wind energy to electricity. Much the way solar panels now grace many rooftops, the researchers envision buildings outfitted with vibro-wind panels, which would store the energy they convert from even the gentlest of breezes.
Traditional wind energy harvesting requires the use of large, expensive turbines, or windmills. The vibro-wind setup would require a fraction of the space and cost much less.
“The thing with turbines and windmills is that you need wide open space, and you need it to be away from the city, because people don’t like the way they look,” explained Rona Banai ’10, a chemical engineering major and chief student engineer of the Vibro-Wind group.
Looking into the feasibility of vibro-wind panels isn’t just about engineering. The group includes co-principal investigator Kevin Pratt, assistant professor of architecture, and architecture major Jamie Pelletier ’10, who are working on design issues to address integration of panels into buildings.
This past semester, the students — exclusively undergraduates — tested a prototype consisting of a panel mounted with oscillators they made out of pieces of foam. They set up their experiment on top of Rhodes Hall, hoped for windy days and monitored how much energy they captured with each quiver of the oscillators.
The trickiest part — the actual conversion from mechanical to electrical energy — was done using a piezoelectric transducer, which is a device made of a ceramic or polymer that emits electrons when stressed.
Banai in particular has also researched an alternative to the piezoelectric transducer, checking feasibility of using an electromagnetic coil instead. The pros and cons are some of the things she’s now working to put into a report, she said.
Vibration energy harvesting is nothing new, but according to Moon, interest in the subject has grown in the past few years in such areas as defense and civil infrastructure. The soldier of the future, for example, could shed the need for heavy batteries or other equipment, instead creating and storing electrical energy just by walking. Or civil engineers could rig buildings or bridges with sensors to detect fires and other instabilities, and the sensors would be powered by vibrational energy.
“We are taking research that’s been in progress, and we are trying to extend it into a new type of energy harvesting,” Moon said.
The study is funded by a $100,000 grant from the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future’s Academic Venture Fund. Co-principal investigators are: Ephrahim Garcia, associate professor; Hod Lipson, associate professor; Charles Williamson, professor; and Wolfgang Sachse, professor, all mechanical and aerospace engineering.
Provided by Cornell University (news : web)
Reference Link: http://www.physorg.com/news194111724.html
Courtesy : Science News Daily & PHYSORG
Eco-awareness camp for students
Udhagamandalam, India: A three-day eco-awareness camp for school students organised under the aegis of the Department of Education and the Nilgiris District Environment Association got underway here on Tuesday.
Visit
According to District Environment Coordinator K.Chandrashekar, 150 students from eight schools in Standard VI to IX are participating in the camp.
Among the places which the participants will visit are Pykara, Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, Moyar, Masinagudy and Singara. They will remove discarded plastic items at various places.
Experts
He added that experts in the field of environment protection would address the students.
The camp was inaugurated by Biologist and Green Campaigner S.Rajan.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/17/stories/2010031751480300.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
Students join hands for a cause
Service-minded:Students and parents at the fete organised by St. Joseph’s Convent High School, Adilabad on Saturday.
ADILABAD, India: Students of St. Joseph’s Convent High School, Adilabad, and their parents had a ‘purposeful’ day out on Saturday as they participated in the annual ‘anand mela’ on the school campus. Like in the last instances, the ‘income’ generated through sales of eatables at the fete will be donated to an ailing person.
“We collect the proceeds which are just the day’s pocket money so that the needy can be helped. Besides organising flood relief in the past, we have constructed 10 houses for the poor, contributed towards surgery of a heart patient and kidney transplant of another. This year, the money will be given for bone marrow transplantation of a local patient”, revealed Sr. Cecil Jose, the school principal. A number of parents helped out their children in cooking mouth watering eatables like mirchi bajjis and other spicy items.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/14/stories/2010031458930300.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
College students urged to learn fine arts also
GOOD WORK:Students of Bon Secours College in Thanjavur receiving the overall championship award.
THANJAVUR, India: College students should learn fine arts apart from their regular studies to preserve our rich heritage, said K. Murugesan, Emeritus Professor, (UGC), Department of Folklore, Tamil University, here recently.
Speaking at the Bon Fest 2010, the cultural festival at Bon Secours College for Women, Mr. Murugesan said that fine arts like vocal, veena recital, Bharata Natyam, etc., bring peace to the mind.
“There are many folk arts which the students can learn. Our cultural troupes comprising students win prizes in Republic Day parade at Delhi every year.”
Tamil University drama department trained students for Republic Day parade in the nineties and won many prizes.
Students, particularly girls, should take up art. Murugesan distributed prizes to students on the occasion.
Principal Sister C.A.Mariammal said that social service was part and parcel of the students of the college.
The students produce various goods, sell them and use the money got out of it to educate poor students of the college.
They are also interested in folk arts. They underwent training in folk arts.
K. Lakshmi, cultural secretary and Ravi, President, Vilar Pachayat, participated in the function.
Cultural programmes by students followed the meeting.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/05/stories/2010030559510300.htm
11 students recognised as NASA Cassini Scientist for a day
Photo:G. Krishnaswamy
On a ‘mission’:Students recognised as NASA’s Cassini Scientist for a day in Hyderabad on Thursday.
HYDERABAD, India:Ten out of the 11 students recognised by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as NASA Cassini Scientist for a day are from the State. These children will interact with real mission scientists through indirect video conference to be conducted in first week of March and also participate in a direct video conference with NASA’s former and existing scientists the next week.
This announcement was made at a ceremony organised by Planetary Society, India, in association with Cassini People Outreach Division and US Consulate General’s Office, here on Thursday. “It’s an opportunity for students in grades 5 to 10 to learn about Saturn and Cassini – Huygens mission by participating through essay format,” said Planetary Society General Secretary N. Sri Raghunandan Kumar. The selected students are: Rohin Vajawat, K. Sushmithasri, E. Radheshyam, G. Meghna, Ram Pranav and Shahnawaz (all from Hyderabad), Ch. Bhaskar and C.H.V. Sai Vinay (Vijayawada), M. Bharat (Tirupati), Vishnu Priya (Kothagudem) and Syed Yasin Shahtaz Emanee (Assam). Explaining the activity, Mr. Kumar said students were asked to imagine that they were real scientists on Cassini Mission of NASA to Saturn and write a scientific report after selecting one of the three targets given by the mission authorities.
Participating as the chief guest, US Consulate Office Vice-Consul Pamela Pontius said the programme would enable students develop more interest in science and technology.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/02/26/stories/2010022658620200.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
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