Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative announces 2012-2013 cohort
Brent Sebold (left), venture manager for ASU’s Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative, speaks with Eric Lehnhardt and Loni Amundson of FlashFood. Photo: Jessica Slater/ASU
Teams led by engineering students have been awarded funding through the Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative. AlphaStripe, FlashFood and SafeSIPP won funding, and G3Box received a second year of funding through the program.
AlphaStripe is a global, online networking platform for military service members, military families, civilians, and humanitarian organizations to share war-time and conflict zone stories in video, photo, audio, and journal formats. AlphaStripe is led by mechanical engineering graduate student, Eli Chmouni.
FlashFood is a smartphone application and website designed to reduce food waste and feed the hungry. The app facilitates communication between providers, collectors, distributors and recipients. Team members are biomedical engineering graduate Eric Lehnhardt, materials science and engineering major Katelyn Keberle, computer science graduates Steven Hernandez and Ramya Baratam, senior marketing and sustainability major Jake Ervin and sustainability graduate Loni Amundson.
G3Box sells medical clinics made out of converted steel shipping containers to nonprofits and NGOs that work in healthcare development and disaster response who want on-demand, fully-functional medical space. Team members include biomedical engineering undergraduate, Gabrielle Palermo and mechanical engineering major Billy Walters, along with Susanna Young and Clay Tyler, who hold master’s degrees in mechanical engineering.
SafeSIPP (Sustainable Innovative Portable Purification) is simultaneously solving two problems for rural communities in Africa: transportation and purification of clean drinking water. The team has designed a three-phase water purification and filtration system that works when a barrel—made from 80 percent recycled materials—is rolled across the ground from the water source to the community for consumption. The team includes Lindsay Fleming, Taylor Barker and Jared Schoepf, chemical engineering majors, and Jacob Arredondo, marketing and finance major.
FlashFood, G3Box and SafeSIPP developed their projects in the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program.
Engineering students are also contributing in multidisciplinary teams, Seymour Enterprises, Solar Stream Innovations and Vantage Realized.
The teams were among 340 that applied to be accepted to the 2012-2013 cohort. Twenty companies were selected.
Now in its eighth year, the Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative is one of the largest privately funded business plan competitions at a U.S. university. In addition to funding, students selected for the year-long program receive office space and training, enabling them to develop their ideas and launch viable businesses.
Learn more about all of the teams selected on ASU News.
