College of Letters and Science student Ibi Opuiyo is working on an app that people can use to manage their health care. The mobile platform also will measure and improve patient satisfaction. Opuiyo conceived of the app while working at the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Though she already has a master’s degree, she is now taking courses needed to enter physician assistant training. (UWM Photo/Elora Hennessey)
Jordan Mather, a senior marketing student, built a mobile platform that allows health-care providers to communicate with their patients through HIPAA-compliant instructional videos, messaging and visual progress tools. The app also allows patients to store shared information to review later. That could, for example, prevent physical therapy patients from losing their exercise instructions. (UWM Photo/Troye Fox)
Lindsey Roddy is a nursing student who noticed how often hospital personnel are devising “homemade” solutions to keep the multiple lines hanging from an IV tree from tangling. Her product keeps the lines under control, increasing efficiency and reducing worker and patient injury. (UWM Photo/Elora Hennessey)
Engineering master’s student Saeed Golbad (center) is a Pepsi lover who doesn’t like ice – or waiting for warm cans to get cold in the refrigerator. So he enlisted his wife, doctoral engineering student Parisa Khoshnoud, and engineering undergrad Garrett Keleny to help him design an on-demand, compact cooling device that does the job in only 10 minutes, while saving on power costs. (UWM Photo/Troye Fox)
Jake Kearns (right), an undergraduate in finance and math, is building a better aerial drone with friend and fellow entrepreneur Jake Krieg. What makes this drone so special? Its propulsion system will allow it to remain in the air for a longer period of time, solving a vexing problem with many drones on the market. (UWM Photo/Elora Hennessey)
Marketing major Brandi Hayes-Fink (left) and kinesiology major Alisyn Vermey are establishing a family-focused yoga studio, Zen Gen Yoga, that will feature environmentally friendly products and practices. Brought together by a mutual friend, the two joined forces when they realized they shared a dream of operating this kind of business. (Photo/Aidan Benkowski)
Where do you start to bring a promising product or business idea from concept to reality? Turns out, you don’t even have to leave campus.
The goal of the UWM Lubar Entrepreneurship Center is to make entrepreneurship an integral part of the UWM experience. The Ideas Challenge is the name of the center’s programming, which is designed to involve students in all disciplines and at many levels. Students can take both “pop-up” workshops and Ideas Challenge courses, existing courses that have been redesigned to use experiential learning models and entrepreneurial themes.
Twenty-seven teams are participating in the Student Startup Challenge, which has evolved from a product-idea competition to a yearlong mentoring process. During the first phase, teams learn the “lean launch” approach to entrepreneurship by participating in the Student I-Corps program. If they continue with the program, teams will be ready to compete in the New Ventures Business Plan Competition, hosted by the Lubar School of Business and supported by La Macchia Enterprises.