M.E. Senior Capstone Examines Regenerative Energy
Regenerative energy is being used more and more in vehicles today in attempts to make them more efficient, harnessing extra energy usually from braking, to feed back into the electrical system. Kettering student Rick Birdsall, as seen in the picture, holds up parts to an inductive “shake-to-charge” flashlight he dissected over the weekend with grand plans to imitate its electrical system for his senior capstone project. Rick explains, “We want to use a cars shock absorbers to see how much regenerative energy we can produce. It’s a simple concept, but we don’t we don’t know how effective it will be yet.”
Rick is on a team with two other mechanical engineering students, Jim Gat and Warren Paul, who have a budget of $200 and until the end of the school term to come up with a complete working model. Rick went on to say “We saw that M.I.T. had some research on this, but it wasn’t exactly the approach were taking.” In all efforts to be a more sustainable world, research like this has a large impact on industry, and the student-lead team will hopefully have some interesting results in the weeks to come. Get in touch with Rick for more information on the project.
Rachel Wood on Coaching
Rachel Wood is a junior at Kettering majoring in business, and could be your coach someday. Not your basketball or soccer coach, more like your career or personal coach. Rachel explains “Coaching is kind of like consulting, but not really. Coaching is more personal, and where a consultant might look at a specific process or technology, coaching looks at people, relationships, and underlying issues.” Coaching is becoming a great option for people looking for leadership training, and who are facing problems in their life or their job that might be overwhelming or appear unsolvable. Rachel would be able to help people organize their goals, and create a path to reach them.
Rachel is an active Kettering Entrepreneur Society member, and this Tuesday gave a presentation on her plans to own her own coaching business. She says, “I still have some education to finish, and want to get an official certification, but I am making connections right now to start building my client list.” From KES, to Kettering LEADERS, and even being a part of U.S. Air Force training programs, Rachel has a great start to a successful career in coaching. Contact Rachel for more information.
So you want to start a business?
Its a pretty daunting task to actually “start a business”. If your going to take the plunge, hopefully you have an idea, a decent way to make money from that idea, and some time to make it happen; but what about the other issues? You will have tasks like creating a brand, with a logo, a legal structure, and the list goes on! To get started, get familiar with some terminology and processes in the state of Michigan (we will talk about Michigan-based business’s).
Starting a Business in Michigan
Next, focus on your legal structure, this will be important as you start creating bank accounts, approaching investors, and will determine a lot about your legal limitations or opportunities as a company.
If you already have a business name, thats great. If not, you can look at the following article for some inspiration.
Choosing the Best Name for Your Business
Next, you can check if your business name is taken, or if there is something too similar that makes you stray from using it.
Another good idea is to quickly Google search your business name, and make sure there are not a lot of listings, or listings that you might not want a client to associate your business to. Remember, a business name is important, and something you need to love and live with everyday, but your success comes from your products, services, and support- not a flashy logo or company name. Once your ready for some serious media outreach, including things like a website, corporate materials, and marketing, get in touch with a company like Prime Studios, or any other professional branding company to help you. With all the ways to connect and digitally market your business, a small investment can go a long way when figuring out how to reach your audience.
Theres much more to starting a business, as you can imagine! Get in touch with people who have done it in the Kettering Entrepreneur Society by contacting KES President Brad Birdsall.
Abdra Traore is Charging the Future
Kettering grad student Abdra Traore is pursuing some big ideas in the fields of energy management and distribution. Last year, Abdra and fellow Kettering student Shahnoor Amin (currently a grad student at U of M Ann Arbor) created June Energy, a business focused on creating and implementing sustainable energy solutions. The most recent project for June Energy is a portable electronic charging station for developing countries. Abdra explains “One of the biggest challenges for remote villagers is not getting electronics, but keeping them charged.” The details of the project are being kept confidential at the moment, but the team plans to focus on bringing energy to communities of people, rather than individuals, through an innovative delivery method.
The June Energy team is no stranger to philanthropic projects, and have been involved in designing solar panel systems for remote villages in Guinea, West Africa. The grad students say that “We actively collaborate with our network of fellow students and teachers. We are making use of resources from both of our universities, and we have received great support thus far.” To read more about June Energy, or contact them, visit their website.
KES Corner with TechWorks
For almost a year Kettering Entrepreneur Society members have joined TechWorks‘ Neil Sheridan Friday’s during lunch to casually exchange business ideas, business tools, and to simply network. Neil is the Director of the business accelerator TechWorks, located on campus in the C.S. Mott building, and brings years of real-world, international business skills to the table. The small (and elite) group ranging from 5-10 people either pick a topic for the day (ex. “writing a proposal”) or go around the room and discuss challenges individuals are facing with their idea or business.
Student entrepreneur Brad Birdsall says this about the meetings, “We will be moving into our own office soon, and need to know what types of insurance to consider. Neil was able to instantly give us three types, and reasoning for them.” Entrepreneurs often talk about networking, and the weekly KES Corner is a great example of it in action. The meetings are during lunch on Fridays, in the KES Room, 5th Floor of the CC. Contact Brad for more information.
Senior Seminar Looks at Social Entrepreneurs
This week the senior seminar class taught by Professor Badrinath Rao gave presentations on the book, “The Power of Unreasonable People”. As a mandatory read for the class, this book talks about people who are generally “unreasonable”, or opposed to norms as it relates to business and the global marketplace. The content of the book focuses on entrepreneurs who have made major social changes around the world, working with developing countries and those in need. The students explained the business models of the non-profit organizations making these changes, and how they were innovative in their approach.
Some of the interesting companies discussed during the presentations are these:
Aurolab – A company that creates interocular lenses, that heal cataract blindness. The company sells these lenses to the developing world for $2-4, while selling the same product to the western world for upwards of $150. The company embraces volume markets and a flexible pricing structure to appeal to different markets, reffered to as “compassionate capitialism”.
First Book – This company notes that some impoverished areas of the United States have one book per 300 children. This non-profit that has found ways to provide cheaper books by purchasing upfront amounts of vendors inventory, reprints, and receiving donations.
Recycla Chile – A company that recycles e-waste, dismantling electronics and reprocessing or recycling it. This business model uses former prison inmates to assist, and also collaborate with other non-profit and social business.
The senior seminar class will continue to learn about other types of entrepreneurship as they progress in their class, as well as innovative leadership.
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