A Fairfield University School of Engineering student with a love of films recently took first place ”“ and a cash award ”“ in the 18th annual Connecticut Business Plan Competition.
Another Fairfield University engineering project won free office space for its plant-monitoring system idea.
The Fairfield-based Entrepreneurship Foundation organized the event, in which 12 teams from colleges and universities around the state competed. The foundation”™s goal is to bring positive university programs to the marketplace.
Fairfield graduate student Sai Krishna Vennam, of Warangal, India, won for “Bollywood Bee,” his idea for a mobile app that allows Bollywood film fans to locate showings and stay abreast of the latest buzz about Indian cinema.
To cultivate his business plan, Vennam has received a $1,500 cash grant, plus $2,500 worth of legal services from the Stamford law firm Kiernan Herner LLP.
“This is my fourth month in the U.S. and I love how people at our university encouraged me to get into the competition and win,” said Vennam. “I was an independent filmmaker in India and that is how the idea came up.”
“CareForMyPlant,” another School of Engineering team, also took part in the contest and received a four-month membership in a new maker space at the Bridgeport Innovation Center.
“My business plan idea is an affordable Wi-Fi device that monitors plant conditions, such as temperature, soil moisture, humidity, CO2 levels, pH levels and the amount of sunlight,” said team leader Alfredo Flores, a master”™s of science student in electrical and computer engineering from Ibarra, Ecuador. “This information will be displayed in an app for smartphones, tablets and computers.” His teammates were classmates Vinal Kumar Raju and Bhargava Valmiki, both of India.
The Fairfield students who took part in the competition were enrolled in a new course, titled Engineering Entrepreneurship, taught by Mike Roer and Douglas Lyon, who both served as advisers.
“We are training students to perform the commercialization of innovation, to becoming not just employable, but employers,” said Lyon. “Entrepreneurship is the only way we know to create wealth and our ability to innovate is our only path toward a sustainable competitive advantage.”
Student participants defended their business plans before a panel of entrepreneurs and investors. After each presentation, the judges grilled students to test their knowledge of the product or service, the market, the competition, the capital required to launch the business, legal and tax issues that could impact the plan and other matters.
