A confluence of ongoing campus accomplishments and activities coupled with special support brought together in celebration the best of NJIT’s entrepreneurial community through its inaugural NJIT Innovation Day held on April 19th. The final judging of the initial TechQuest undgraduate invention competition funded by technical consultant James Stevenson, Ph.D and Honeywell International Corporate Fellow, highlighted the day that included a poster session featuring student work performed in conjunction with the McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program directed by Prof. Angelo Perna.
Over the past few years the emergence of student entrepreneurial accomplishments associated with NJIT has become quite visible. NJIT’s New Jersey Innovation Acceleration Center has provided support to student entrepreneurs through an Innovation Acceleration Club and the Albert Dorman Honor’s College Interdisciplinary Designs Studio program. The latter has given teams a framework to work on both the research and commercialization aspects of their innovations. In addtion student capstone courses throughout the university offer an opportunity to develop solutions to industry inspired problems.
In 2012 four undergraduate students from the Interdisciplinary Design Studio (IDS) won awards in the Newark Innovation Acceleration Challenge and the New Jersey Entrepreneurial Network. In early 2013 three NJIT teams were recognized in the Randall Pinkett CEO Challenge. In addition, NJIT is also the home to over 90 early stage small businesses located in its technology and life sciences business incubator, the Enterprise Development Center.
The winners of the TechQuest Competition were: 1st place: ChitO2-Clot-a Novel Hemostatic & Oxygen Releasing Biomaterial for Traumatic Injuries, 2nd place: myOPT-Muscle Rehabilitation and Strength Training Sleeve, and 3rd place: MSP-Multiple Stitch Producing Device. The three finalist teams shared prize money totaling $10,500.
As stated by NJIT President Joel S. Bloom, “Ideas, inventions and breakthroughs are the catalyst for the development of the new technologies and the creation of new business ventures that are a vital component of America’s competitive future.”
Photo: TechQuest Participants: Parkinson’s Detection Poster: Philip Bartholomew and Noel Christian
