Two Burton D. Morgan fellows learn about emerging technologies and entrepreneurial culture
James Gerber, mechanical engineering and Nishant Jain, electrical engineering technology, are both Burton D. Morgan fellows pursuing the Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. During their fellowship experiences they’ve taken a similar professional development path.
The Burton D. Morgan fellows are high-performing, student thought leaders in the area of entrepreneurship. Outstanding undergraduate and graduate students from across academic disciplines are selected every year. The program is designed to be a student-driven initiative, focused on educational leadership, mentorship and community building while supporting professional development. The program is funded by the Burton D. Morgan Foundation.
Nishant Jain and James Gerber, Burton D. Morgan fellows, attended the Consumer Electronic Show.
Gerber and Jain attended the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) and SXSW Conference and Festival, where networking and learning about entrepreneurship from new perspectives were invaluable experiences.
“CES was the quickest gateway to upper industry level knowledge for Internet of Things (IoT), home automation, and printed electronics,” Jain said. “As I was leaving one of the expositions, I was inspired to act on an idea I had for an app called VoiceCast. I’ve been working on the app since returning from CES in January.”
Gerber added the highlight of CES was attending a CEO panel where each panelist shared their five to 10 year vision for their company.
“My favorite panel was titled Opportunities for the Global Economy and showcased CEOs from Ford Motor Company, Flextronics and Intel,” Gerber said. “What I found most interesting was the thought process behind their vision. Consumers do not typically think about new technologies until the technology is available to them. This panel offered tangible descriptions and details to execute their future goals for products consumers haven’t thought about.”
“SXSW covered a variety of interests, but brought entrepreneurial themes into each session,” Gerber said. “The session I found most rewarding was titled Treat Your Film as a Startup: Ladies Who Hacked It. A panel of four female filmmakers discussed the difficulties of bringing their film concept from idea to final product. They covered how to pitch your idea, secure funds, build an audience and network, and use new tools to self-distribute a film to get it widely seen. All these topics related directly to entrepreneurship and being innovative with your idea.”
Jain’s experience mirrored Gerber’s by finding entrepreneurship outside his area of study.
James Gerber and Nishant Jain grab a selfie with the group of ladies behind the session, “Treat Your Film as a Startup : Ladies Who Hacked It”, at the SXSW Conference and Festival.
“SXSW answered some of my hardest questions on lean startup methodology. Panels on A/B testing from Netflix, Uber and virtual reality learning from Google gave me knowledge on how to establish a feedback cycle and implement a user-driven approach during development,” Jain said. “Other inspirational sessions were by IBM discussing their conversational user experience Alma, and a keynote on startup challenges by Adam Grant that gave me insights into unexplored territories of conversation science and psychological aspects of entrepreneurship and innovation.”
In addition to attending the conferences, Gerber and Jain are meeting with professional mentors to learn about how entrepreneurship can be part of their future careers.
Gerber and Jain agree that being a fellow is undoubtedly one of the most valuable experiences during their time at Purdue.
Gerber said through his fellowship experience he learned that entrepreneurship isn’t specifically housed in a young person with an idea. It is in diverse teams, a variety of business sizes and alive in many industries.
Jain noted that his fellowship experience has helped motivate his belief in himself and expand his network into industries he would never explored.