RALEIGH — For the past four months, a group of NC State grad students have been working to come up with startup concepts as part of an innovation course. They’re soon going to get the chance to showcase their final solutions.

Next Tuesday, December 18,  RIoT will host the invite-only event presented with NC State’s Product Innovation Lab, a Jenkins MBA graduate practicum course offered in the university’s business, design, engineering and textiles colleges.

As part of the program, students across these disciplines team up to develop viable business concepts and put them to the test in an experiential learning environment. The students first start out with a problem they’re tasked to tackle, then  develop and prototype a solution and build a business model to drive it to market — all culminating in a final presentation and Q&A session with faculty, who play the role of interested investors.

The Product Innovation Lab is led by Jonathan Bohlmann, professor of marketing and innovation in NC State’s Poole College of Management, in collaboration with faculty members in the participating four colleges.

RIoT Executive Director Tom Snyder co-instructs the course out of NC State’s electrical engineering department.

As a contribution of its partnership with the program, RIoT offers students free access to its prototyping and support space, RIoT Labs, and introductions to the organization’s mentors and programs—encouraging them to continue building their venture after completing the course.

Snyder says the probability of success is increased when new ventures are able to test and launch their products at no cost.

“We try to impart on the students that the reason they are in college is to learn such that they can support themselves in the future,” Snyder said. “For many students, this looks like a diploma and job application. But more and more, this looks like taking control of your own destiny and starting a new venture.”

“A new job is a job, whether from an established company or new venture,” he adds. “In both cases, the skills learned in the course apply and both RIoT and NC State fulfill their mission of education and economic development in North Carolina.”

The Product Innovation Lab was founded in 2002 by former NC State Zelnak Professor of Marketing and Innovation Dr. Mitzi Montoya, who is now dean of Oregon State University’s College of Business.

The program has refined its focus over the years, moving alongside the market changes in the tech sector more toward innovation. It won national recognition in 2010 by Forbes’ 10 Most Innovative Business School Courses list.

Several local startups have spun out of the course, including VitalFlo, which went on to land a NC IDEA SEED grant and winning prizes at Lulu eGames, Big Launch Challenge, CIMIT’s Student Technology Student Technology Prize and NASA Tech Briefs; civic parking app dropark, part of Innovate Durham’s 2017 cohort and a winner of US Ignite’s reverse pitch contest in 2017; and OpenGait, a low-cost modular prosthetic kit supported by Raleigh nonprofit LifeNabled.

The upcoming RIoT event is a platform for Product Innovation Lab students to showcase not just their projects, but also the skills they’ve adopted throughout the duration of the course.

Attendees will be given “investor dollars” to spend on their favorite concepts.

Snyder says a few expert judges will also be seated in the crowd, unbeknownst to the presenters. The intended message to the students is that every impression they make could have significant value.

“This teaches the importance of every relationship, never knowing when a critical connection will be made as you network and build a community and ecosystem,” Snyder says.

The invite-only showcase will take place December 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. at HQ Capital Club’s Cannon Room in downtown Raleigh.

https://wraltechwire.com/event/iot-student-showcase/