growing infrastructure
TRANSFORMING STUDENTS INTO ECOENTREPRENEURS
A national alliance provides financial support and infrastructure to college students to channel innovative spirit into sustainable commerce.

Kathleen Candy

A new partnership is helping to launch a wave of entrepreneurs across America. It is providing students who have good ideas, but with little money and even less time, the resources to fulfill their business dreams a number of which have a strong sustainable focus. The partnership is called the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA).

Started in 1995 at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts with support from the Lemelson Foundation, the NCIIA is an interdisciplinary alliance of faculty and students. Its mission is to nurture a new generation of innovators by fostering and promoting the teaching of invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship at colleges and universities nationwide. Innovative projects with a commercial focus serve as vehicles for student-driven learning in technical and commercial areas.

PROVIDING FINANCIAL SUPPORT AND INFORMATION

The NCIIA is distributing over $1.5 million in grants to faculty and students; providing services and information to member institutions; and organizing meetings, workshops, and other resources to assist in the development of new academic programs focusing on commercially directed innovation. A young and growing program, it has 117 member institutions ranging from large universities to small, liberal arts colleges.

The E-Team (the “E” stands for excellence and entrepreneurship) serves as the foundation of the program. A typical E-Team consists of three to five students, a faculty advisor, and mentoring professionals from industry who together pursue the development of an idea, product, or invention, or solve a problem in a way that is likely to result in the licensing of a new product or technology, or the start-up of an entrepreneurial venture.

The group serves as a flexible, interdisciplinary bridge crossing over barriers between traditional academic disciplines (such as engineering, business, and liberal arts) and between the business and academic communities. E-Teams apply for grants of up to $20,000 to develop their idea — build prototypes, pursue patents, write business plans or do market research. A committee of faculty, venture capitalists, and product development specialists evaluates grant applications for technical and commercial merit. The awards are made biannually through the students’ home institutions.

HOW NCIIA WORKS: DREAMING OF A MORE USEFUL BIKE

Student-inventor Ross Evans believes his new product, the Xtracycle, can help thousands of individuals around the globe pursue small businesses that require low-cost, sustainable transportation. A simple retrofit attachment extending the bicycle’s frame, the Xtracycle transforms a basic two-wheeler into an all-purpose cargo carrier — the world’s first sport/utility bicycle. Ready for delivery to retailers this fall, the Xtracycle can haul loads previously considered too long, heavy, bulky, or fragile to be transported by bicycle. Company president Kipchoge Spencer enthuses: “This is a vehicle for everyone, unlike anything that has come before. It carries everything, yet still functions like a bike, looks cool, is fun to ride, and is useful.” Evans turned his idea into a viable business with a grant from the NCIIA.

In his travels and work in the developing world, Evans noted that while bicycles were abundant, they weren’t as useful to the populace as they could be. Although it is one of the cleanest, cheapest, and most convenient forms of transportation available, a bicycle can’t carry much. Evans wrote in his design journal at the time: “What is the cheapest, lightest, simplest, most maneuverable, most adaptable way to carry cargo?” He started answering that question during the next year, when he took time off from his studies at Stanford University to take a Lemelson Fellowship in Invention, Innovation and Creativity at Hampshire College. When he returned to Stanford with a grant from the NCIIA, he assembled an E-Team of six students from a variety of fields, including Mechanical Engineering, Product Design, Psychology, Science Technology and Society, and Latin American studies. In addition, four students from the Stanford Graduate School of Business joined the team to produce a business plan.

Evans then traveled to Cuba and Senegal to test his design ideas and get feedback from product users. As a result, he redesigned the Xtracycle numerous times until he believed that he had something useful and marketable. In 1998, Kipchoge Spencer and vice president Erin Anderson joined him, and together they launched Xtracycle International.

TAKING SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY A STEP FARTHER

“We’re not just committed to doing good; it’s why we’re in business,” says Spencer. Rather than launching an enterprise to turn a profit, and then deciding it should be run according to socially responsible business principles, the three formed the company in order to use the free market to solve environmental and social problems. They hope to be a model for others to follow by showing that a values-driven business can also be profitable. Another objective is to eventually try to manufacture the Xtracycle in a closed-loop process that produces no waste and uses only renewable resources and energy.

They will sell the Xtracycle for a profit wherever they can in the world — its purchase price in the U.S. is $390. However, any profits will support company initiatives in developing countries. They plan to lower the price, rent, or give away a simpler version of the product, called the extrabike, wherever people can’t afford it, but need it to improve their lives. They have already started conducting workshops in South Africa to teach people how to use locally available materials to build appropriate versions of the extrabike and then teach others. They are also planning to offer loans to extrabike buyers through microlending programs, where entrepreneurs are given small loans to buy the materials they need to start a business.

SUPPORT LIVES AND COMMUNITIES

In the U.S., the company is licensing the extrabike design to grant-dependent, nonprofit organizations that are part of the Youth Bicycle Education Network, an association of groups around the country that teach disadvantaged kids how to recycle bikes and sell them. The money the kids earn allows them to buy new bikes. Evan’s and Spencer’s objective is to give these organizations an income stream that is not grant-based by allowing the groups to produce the extrabike and sell it for $225 to other organizations or individuals. In addition, this past summer, Xtracycle and several other groups launched the “extrabike Partnership” as an avenue for Xtracycle to participate directly in community development and youth education. Partners are all nonprofits involved with the manufacture or distribution of the extrabike that sell the product locally to increase their self-sufficiency.

TURNING VEGETABLE OIL INTO TRACTOR FUEL

Students at Hampshire College, where the NCIIA was founded, are hard at work developing devices that can be attached to a tractor engine to allow it to burn raw vegetable oil. The catalyst for the project was a fall 1998 class taught by John Fabel, Lemelson Visiting Assistant Professor of Design. During the NCIIA-funded class entitled “Design for Sustainability,” two students, Greg Koller and Ariel Benjamin, decided to form an E-Team that would design a better, more efficient, and sustainable tractor.

Farmers who opt not to use herbicides and pesticides spend much more time cultivating the soil and caring for the crop. More cultivation usually means more time on the tractor and greater consumption of fuel. Although reducing reliance on herbicides and pesticides is a worthy pursuit for many reasons, Fabel says that these farmers are essentially replacing oil-based products that pollute the soil with an oil-based product that pollutes the air. So he invited his students to solve this problem, while thinking about ways to make the solution and the business it could create sustainable. Fabel asked: “How do we make a business that is sustainable? A key question is how do we market the product. If you can’t sell your product, it’s not sustainable. The students needed to find something that really works, and that farmers will actually use.”

The students came up with some good, but impractical solutions, including a solar-powered tractor. Fabel and his students asked Carl Bielenberg of the “Better World Workshop,” a sustainable technology development center, for help. Bielenberg had already been successful in creating alternative fuel technologies for developing countries, and had managed to power his VW Rabbit with vegetable oil. After consulting with Bielenberg, the students decided to adapt his vegetable oil technology to make it work in the agricultural context. They found that a simple, inexpensive addition to a diesel tractor engine allows it to burn raw vegetable oil. Rapeseed or canola seeds can be pressed and then filtered to produce the oil. “And most important,” says Fabel, “is the fact that the technique doesn’t require a change in the way farmers operate their tractors.” To make the innovation even easier to use, production of fuel can be part of the farming process: rapeseed and canola are already grown as ground cover for fallow fields or to control soil erosion in the winter.

According to Fabel, the attachment, which could be offered to tractor owners as a retrofit for under $500, fits the requirements of organic farmers, and those looking for a safer, more pleasant alternative to diesel oil. (See “Three Cheers For The Green Gold,” In Business, July-August, 1999.)

NEXT QUESTION: HOW TO MANUFACTURE AND MARKET AN INNOVATION

After the E-Team, which also includes students Justin Carver and Leif Forer, solidified, many other Hampshire students became involved in the project. Fabel believes that the biodiesel project has played a prominent role in their education — a number of students seem likely to go on to careers inspired by the project. For now, however, the E-Team’s objective is to figure out how to go from a conceptual idea to a viable commercial product. Over the next few months, they plan to continue refining the attachment. They will also decide whether the device should be universal to all tractors or be designed for use with specific types of tractors. While testing the design iterations at the Hampshire College farm center, the E-Team will develop a strategy to take them from prototype to a manufactured product that can be easily ordered by farmers through the Internet or other resource. In addition, the E-Team has an oil crop going — black sunflowers — and is determining what crop is best for the device.

Although plenty of work must be done before the attachment can be marketed, the E-Team has found support and encouragement from the enthusiastic feedback they’ve received from farmers.

LEARNING TO CREATE A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS

At the University of Virginia, an E-Team is constructing fuel efficient, lightweight road wheels for high-performance automobiles from fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP). In this class of composite materials, ultra-strong carbon and glass fibers are imbedded in an epoxy matrix, yielding an easily formable, strong, stiff and lightweight product. While designs for fiber-reinforced plastic wheels have been patented, none are in widespread use because of manufacturing problems. With this in mind, the E-Team developed a manufacturing technique that allows them to produce a wide variety of sizes and styles of FRP composite wheels, simply and inexpensively. The wheels offer improvements in several areas of vehicle performance because they weigh up to 65 percent less than conventional metal wheels. They also use normal tires and can be installed with no vehicle modification whatsoever.

The project started as a design exercise by UVA student Chris Coffing during an invention and design class taught by Professor Michael Gorman in 1998. After initial positive feedback from teachers and classmates, Coffing
recruited fellow Mechanical Engineering student Steven Sklad, and several faculty advisors, and formed the Virginia Composite Wheel E-Team.

The E-Team received a NCIIA grant in May, 1998, allowing the students to begin actual construction in late summer after a few months of organizational work. The team built custom tooling and hardware, including a large-capacity lathe using a potter’s wheel, a high-speed die grinder, and a precision three-axis locating device. In addition, they made prototype wheel molds, and conducted experiments involving specific epoxy formulations and aluminum wheel hardware. Next, the team plans to strength and fatigue test prototype composite wheels.

Another E-Team at Hampshire College is developing an aquaponic system that has tremendous potential to produce food and income for rural and urban populations. The students are addressing the barriers to the adoption of aquaponic technology, including ecological, economic, and engineering issues. They are developing microbial biofilters for soluble and suspended waste, hydroponic plants for uptake of inorganic wastes, and compost systems for the conversion of solids to stable fertilizer. In addition, they have been assessing sustainable energy sources for pumping and heating, allowing for aquaponic growth in cold climates. In addition, an E-Team from Cedarville College in Ohio is developing and testing a device that distills gasoline from ethanol to provide enough gasoline for a cold start-up. Ethanol is one of the most promising alternative fuels, but cannot start engines at low temperatures. The E-Team has already demonstrated feasibility of the device — now they plan to work on its practical applications, and begin sorting through manufacturing and production issues.

PASSION FOR PROJECT LEADS TO SUCCESS

To increase their chances for success as young entrepreneurs, the NCIIA encourages every E-Team to choose a project about which they are passionate. Many students, like Ross Evans, Chris Coffing, and the others described here, decided to pursue innovations with a focus on sustainability. The NCIIA has given them the tools, structure and support to take a good idea from concept to viable business enterprise. By operating as student-entrepreneurs, they are developing the confidence and skills necessary to succeed as technical innovators in the real world, solve real world problems, and create businesses — all in a low- risk environment.

For more information about the NCIIA, visit the alliance’s website at www.nciia.org.