G3Box named College Entrepreneur of the Year

A team of four ASU engineering students creating solutions to provide more accessible healthcare has been named Entrepreneur Magazine’s College Entrepreneur of 2011.

Generating Global Containers for Good (G3Box) is focused on converting abandoned steel shipping containers into medical-grade clinics by outfitting them with the basic components of power, ventilation, potable water and insulation to create sustainable clinics to deliver aid and medical attention internationally.

Team members include biomedical engineering junior Gabrielle Palermo and mechanical engineering senior Billy Walters, along with Susanna Young and Clay Tyler, who are pursuing master’s degrees in mechanical engineering.

According to Entrepreneur Magazine, “their outstanding work represents the future of entrepreneurship: a winning combination of innovation, philanthropy and environmental responsibility.”

The team sees the refurbished containers as a way to enable hospitals to expand more easily and affordably, bring healthcare facilities to rural areas and meet the need for portable emergency relief clinics—all while repurposing unused shipping containers.

The students are currently working on a maternity clinic using a container donated by Swift Transportation. They plan to use the Entrepreneur Magazine prize money to build a prototype disaster-relief clinic.

G3Box received $5,000 to help develop their business, was featured in a special section in the January 2012 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine and honored at the magazine’s Growth Conference luncheon, also in January.

G3Box was one of five finalists in the College Entrepreneur category—including three ASU teams.