Three University of Connecticut engineering students who last year didn’t know a thing about starting a business have formed a company based on technology they designed in a UConn classroom.
The students’ product is an all-terrain wheelchair, built conspicuously to look like your normal wheelchair. The secret is in its self-propelling handle bars, which give the rider the extra push needed to go over anything — grass, sand, gravel, ice. But instead of just fulfilling a class requirement, the students are now riding this wheelchair straight to venture capitalists.
Geoff Cullen, Carlton Forse and Ryan Gresh — founders of GoMotion Mobility Solutions LLC — give all the credit for starting up their company to the pioneering year of UConn School of Engineering’s entrepreneurship senior design program, which is forcing engineering students to face the business world head on.
For engineers, the innovative spirit has always been there, but they have not always had the acumen to understand market demands. Now engineering students in the two-semester program, which started last fall, take Master of Business Administration-level classes.
“This program enabled us to view the world from an integrated frame of mind, one which focuses on identifying opportunities first and engineering new technology to fit market needs,” Gresh said
During the first semester of the program, engineering students take two MBA-level management classes that focus the students on generating the idea for an innovative product, determining the market demand and developing a business plan. The students collaborate with future MBAs, who also benefit from, a better understanding of the engineering process.
What had originally lured Forse to this program was a summer internship at Alstom Power, where he first saw the obvious crossover between engineering and business.
So far, the GoMotion trio was the only group in the entrepreneurship program to start their own company, but School of Engineering Dean Mun Young Choi said the program has begun to show promise after years of trying to find the right collaboration between the engineering and business schools. Some students even delayed graduation during the first year to participate, he added.
Matt Tarca, who graduated earlier this month, said he and his teammates are considering forming a company based on marine sensor technology that they developed in the program. Tarca said the experience was particularly invaluable in forcing the students to consider alternative applications for their technology.
“At first we had trouble figuring out what the market was when we were in the first stages in design,” Tarca said. “We spent time thinking what other ways we could start a company off a sensor system.”
For GoMotion, the timing of the recession has given the members the spark to pursue their start-up dreams. The company, which was awarded a $5,000 grant from the governor in a college business plan competition, is seeking additional startup funding, as well as space in UConn’s incubator program.
Rita Zangari, executive director of UConn’s Technology Business Incubation Program, said GoMotion’s utilization of the university’s business programs represents the ideal trajectory for start-up companies coming out of the school
Reader responses:
“WOW!!! The all-terrain wheelchair is impressive. These young entrepreneurs show great promise. The idea of providing handicap individuals with additional independence (getting around challenging environments) is impressive and will improve the quality of life. Best of luck to this trio and congratulations on their ingenuity.” — Deb Bruno, Hartford HospitalÂ
