RALEIGH – Want to get a glimpse of the where the internet of things (IoT) is headed? Then check out some of the projects showcased as part of NC State’s Product Innovation Lab.

On Tuesday night, eight multidisciplinary teams of graduate students presented startup company concepts as part of the Jenkins MBA graduate practicum course offered in the university’s business, design, engineering and textiles colleges — many of which included IoT solutions.

Here are many of the names and faces who were at the event.

MacKenzie Tilley, Mahesh Ganesh.

Dhananjai Sharma, Wenyue Ding, James Demby, Christopher Hoina.

More than 100 people packed into The Cannon Room in downtown Raleigh on Tuesday night to check out what’s store. Among the presenters included the winning team called Chirp, which innovated a fire detection system for the home.

In partnership with RIoT, the winners now have free access to its prototyping and support space, RIoT Labs, as well as introductions to the organization’s mentors and programs.

What’s Internet of Things future? NCSU students unveil their ideas

Chandan Sharma, Tom Helton, Joyce Knezevic, Jay Shah, Milton Mariani.

Limeng Zhu, Zekun Zhang, Scott Broaddus, Jon Hymel.

Siddhant Rao, Trupal Kamdar, Ajay Rao, Annie Rasheva, Lindsey Christiano, Joachim Gawryolek.

Founded in 2002, 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.

As part of the semester course, each project team must research and understand market needs, conceptualize and prototype a solution, and create a viable go-to-market plan.

Allen Palumbo, Andrew Bowker, Praneet Mocherla, Joel Matthew, Uttam Patel.


Turquoise Ross, Will Reuther, Dana Jennings, Adhiraj Shinde. (Emily Hodes and Priya Rao, not pictured.)

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.

More than 100 people packed into The Cannon Room in downtown Raleigh on Tuesday night to check out projects presented by graduate students as part of NC State’s Product Innovation Lab.