Wentworth's Accelerate is experiencing an acceleration of its own. The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center awarded 10 student startups with a collective $43,000 in 2014. Come 2015, however, the program is expected to spread campuswide, serving as an anchor in Wentworth's plan to transform education.
"Innovation and Entrepreneurship has moved this year to one of the five factors for career success that Wentworth will focus on going forward," said Accelerate Co-founder Monique Fuchs, Wentworth's associate vice president of innovation and entrepreneurship, in an email to BostInno.
The program has solidified its role in the Institute's four-year strategic plan to establish a culture of innovation. The objective is to integrate what Wentworth has coined "EPIC Learning" across the school — or rather, an Externally-collaborative, Project-based, Interdisciplinary Curricula for Learning.
"Accelerate is certainly living that premise," Fuchs said, "and will continue to help push this paradigm to transform education."
Since its launch in May 2012, Accelerate has required teams be interdisciplinary in order to receive funding. Over the last year, Fuchs has seen this concept take shape, with teams diversifying much earlier in the process.
Something else is also happening earlier, though.
"We continue to see strong engagement from first-year students," Fuchs said, noting the increase in freshmen engaging in entrepreneurship from the start of their college career.
With that earlier engagement comes the ability to get to a working prototype faster. The startups making their case for capital today are pitching products, rather than just ideas, which is what Accelerate initially focused on funding.
Once every semester, interdisciplinary teams used to participate in a "Pitchfest," with the hopes of receiving $10,000 in capital. At the beginning of 2014, however, that funding model changed. Rather than awarding students with one large sum of money, Accelerate started investing in students twice a semester — and in smaller amounts. The goal? To help students prioritize better and focus on what their absolute next step needed to be.
Startups can now pitch multiple times. Gentoo Inc., a former MassChallenge finalist creating a light compression vest for patients undergoing infusion treatments, received $2,000 this year, but has been awarded $10,000 in the past, according to Fuchs. Cosmetic storage startup Simply Stored has seen similar success, winning $7,000 in 2014 to add to its previous pot of $6,000.
Come the start of the new year, Accelerate will be adding a full-time resource to help spawn more ideas like Gentoo and Simply Stored. The resource "will focus on programming and increased mentorship for the teams," described Fuchs, who noted the Center will continue honing in on startups that are product-focused or have a social impact.
To see what that looks like, here's a list of the startups that received funding from Accelerate this year, with descriptions provided by Fuchs.
Winner of $13,000
PI Inc. — PI Inc. is developing a device that can detect sports-related concussions and notify coaches with real-time monitoring. The team: Alex Schwarzkopf, Dylan Powers, Matthew Joyal and Jennifer Roy
Winner of $7,000
Simply Stored — Nail polish can be easily stored and found in Simply Stored's space-saving and functional organization. The team: Stephanie Nannariello and Deborah Massaro
Winner of $6,000
Bay 5 Motors — Bay 5 Motors aims to bring the moped back from the past and into the current culture. The team: Zach Richards and Emerson Ward
Winner of $5,000
Alpha Industries — Alpha Industries is dedicated to improving both the efficiency and ease of cargo and passenger flight, opening new markets and methods for nearly every industry imaginable. The team: Josh Willis, Greg Frasco, Ryan Cataldo, Caleb Jackson and Rae Rice
Winner of $3,000
VUE – VUE is creating a handheld vaporizer for outpatient medical use, thereby eliminating the stigma associated with inhaling. The team: Haiden Goggin, Tony Travaglini and Param Pabla
Luminovations — Luminovations' modular, adaptable, inexpensive HD projector is reaching a currently untapped consumer market. The team: Ryan Korsen, Tyler Nelson, Ken Costa and Alexan Topalian
Winner of $2,000
Gentoo Inc. — The Gentoo Vest is providing freedom and mobility to patients undergoing infusion treatments. The team: Ben Nadeau and Greg Affsa
EK Tape — EK Tape is a conductive, elastic athletic tape that combines the therapeutic power of a kinesio tape with TENS units. The team: Pabel Perez-Gonzales, Patrick Pfenning, Elizabeth Priolo and Justin Rivera
Winner of $1,000
Board Secure — Board Secure is a multipurpose rack design to lock bikes, longboards and skateboards. The team: Joseph Beliveau and Gregory Butterworth
ESI — ESI's "The Barb" serves as a port for dialysis patients’ catheters. The port will be a sturdier, long-term solution that increases patients' quality of life through improved comfort, as well as decreased infection risk. The team: Christopher Auld, Jorge Reyes, Kevin Babineau, Nick Poplar and Ben Waltuch
Image via Wentworth Accelerate
