BOSTON ( TheStreet) -- College campuses are an increasingly fertile breeding ground for inventors, many of whom have an eye on the global marketplace.
Each year, the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance hosts its annual Open Minds showcase of student innovation (formerly known as March Madness for the Mind). This year, the event will be held March 26 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.![]() |
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's cheaper and improved cycle rickshaw carts are among several college inventors' products showing March 26 at the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance's Open Minds showcase. |
- A compact generator that uses household waste and a tiny bit of water to make electricity, with even a twig being enough to run a bank of LEDs that can light a room for hours or, eventually, charge a cell phone and other devices (Arizona State University).
- An affordable, pressurized shower system designed for Chile's poorest areas that has quickly spread beyond its intended market, reducing the spread of disease in developing regions. (Art Center College of Design).
- A mobile-based social network intended to link people and businesses in off-the-grid areas, being piloted this spring in South Africa (Pennsylvania State University).
- Cycle rickshaw carts that improve upon traditional models used in India, but are more affordable so they can be eventually bought by their operators, rather than rented (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
"These are students wanting to make a better world," Fasihuddin says. "They are identifying problems and coming up with very creative solutions to do good and make money at the same time." One such example from Open Minds, on its way to market, is a device that uses freeze-dried medicine to improve shelf life and provide a "just in time vaccine" that can be a lifesaver in remote areas. Another is a $2 "birth kit" that can greatly reduce the risk of infection in Third World countries by providing a sterile instrument to cut the umbilicle cord and giving mothers a sterile floor covering to lay upon. "This generation is much more socially aware, the world is flatter," Fasihuddin says. "There is much more access available about problems halfway around the world and how you can overcome that strife by solving some of these basic health and human needs." Helping others can, in fact, be a good business plan, Fasihuddin says. "There is money to be made, and with microfinance at work in the developing world in a way that wasn't 10 or 15 years ago, students are figuring out the business models," she says. Even private investors can sometimes be sold on such plans. "Patient angel investors and venture capitalists are understanding that they can do good with their money and realizing their returns will come over time," she says. "This is an entirely new class of investors that go to conferences like the Social Capital Conference in the Bay area." Both they, and the inventors they fund, are learning more and more about what it takes to be a success in these once ignored marketplaces. "You are definitely seeing greater access to markets and a lot more written on how to penetrate those markets, different business models that work and price points you have to hit," Fasihuddin says, adding that you cannot just necessarily "take the same old U.S. products and cram them down another market's throat." "You have to employ different techniques and materials, customized as to how they are delivered to the customers," she says. -- Written by Joe Mont in Boston. >To contact the writer of this article, click here: Joe Mont. >To follow the writer on Twitter, go to http://twitter.com/josephmont. >To submit a news tip, send an email to: tips@thestreet.com.
Get more stock ideas and investing advice on our sister site, Stockpickr.com.
RELATED STORIES:
Get more stock ideas and investing advice on our sister site, Stockpickr.com.