September 20, 2018

Students plan problem-solving weekend to build teams, dreams

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — An innovation-minded group on the Purdue campus is inviting fellow students to venture into entrepreneurship during an intensive weekend of competition where problem-solving prototypes can win prizes.

The first “EcoMake” weekend, scheduled Oct. 12-14, is the brainchild of two undergraduates who last year helped establish a co-ed fraternity for aspiring entrepreneurs from all Purdue disciplines and schools. Event founders Byeonghun Kim and Yash Gupta call the 54-hour session “an engineering design competition centered on sustainability.”

But it’s a contest that also emphasizes learning and collaboration, and teams will be formed to include students in liberal arts, business, health sciences and various other subjects, not just engineering, Kim said. Non-competition portions of the weekend will be open to the public.

Students are asked to apply for the free event in order to show their “motivation to build something that means something,” he says. The selected participants will hear industry experts speak on “design thinking” and learn about developing product prototypes. Then, they’ll get to work in teams they either establish in advance or join during the weekend. 

EcoMake, hosted by the entrepreneurial Delta Mu Kappa fraternity, with technology giant Harris Corp. as the principal sponsor, will supply resources and meals during the marathon experience. Undergraduate and graduate students will contribute their distinctive insights to address a real-life sustainability challenge the corporation faces.

By Sunday night, prizes will go to the teams whose prototype solutions are judged best.

“All you need to bring is a creative mind,” Kim said. This electrical engineering major, who last year served as lead organizer for a Startup Weekend Purdue event and went on to create his own nonprofit startup, says this competition is the perfect solution for any students who think they can’t be product innovators because they’re not engineers.

“We’re saying that’s not true. We’ll teach you that actually building something out of your idea isn’t actually that difficult.”

EcoMake co-founder Yash, a computer science major, says the event has another message too: the value of an interdisciplinary team approach to solve a problem. “It takes a lot of people, building something to achieve the same goal.”

Students’ applications can be filed online at the ecomake.org website. The deadline is Sept. 30. Only Purdue students can participate in the full weekend schedule, but the industry expert talks starting Friday evening and teams’ prototype presentations on Sunday will be public events.

Kim and Yash said Purdue’s College of Engineering has provided crucial support for the inaugural EcoMake event, which will take place at the Purdue Honors College and Bechtel Innovation Design Center.

“We are always encouraging and actively supporting such student-led events,” says Dimitrios Peroulis, associate dean for external affairs in the College of Engineering. “Our students’ entrepreneurial spirit and enthusiasm are inspiring to all of us.”

See the EcoMake website for more information, as well as the free online application required for students. 

Contact: Byeonghun Kim, kim2151@purdue.edu

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