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Ohio Colleges Help Launch Student Businesses

This weekend fashion students at Kent State University will get together with technology and business majors for a kind-of slumber party.

It’s their second annual hackathon that combines clothing with technology.

Hackathons are a growing trend at universities where students work night and day trying to invent the next big thing.

Lorain County Community College along with Akron, Cleveland State, Youngstown State and others have the Innovation Fund that awards as much as $100 thousand dollars to hi-tech startup companies. The University of Dayton also provides venture capital to student run businesses. Ohio University offers prizes at their Start-Up Weekend for student entrepreneurs.

We stopped by a brainstorming party, or technology hackathon,  earlier this school year at Kent State. Business professor Eddy Patuwo was volunteering and said the kids had some worthwhile business ideas.

“Many of them! And some of them actually coming out of this meeting end up starting companies.”

The organizers – mostly students- say this is the biggest hackathon in Ohio with almost 300 participants, many of whom came from other universities around the country. They work from Friday night until Sunday morning when they present their ideas to a panel of judges. Sleeping bags and junk food is piled up in every available space at the school’s library and pasta is being served.

Student hackathon participants fuel up on pasta and pizza

More than a dozen companies are sponsoring this hackathon – not just tech companies like Hyland Software and Kent Displays but big ones like Progressive Insurance, American Greetings, and the Knight Foundation. One of the organizers is Blackstone Launchpad a business incubator that opened an office in Kent three years ago and now has offices on 15 campuses in a half dozen states. Associate Director, Kate Harmon, notes the sponsoring companies have tables here with representatives looking for smart workers.

“They are. I think it’s a great opportunity for recruiting for a lot of these companies so they’re out here in force."

Instead of looking at resumes they’re actually watching them work.

"That’s true, absolutely. I think what’s really valuable for companies nowadays is to come to events like this and you see the mindset of these young millenials. They think very differently from someone in their 40’s like myself. So it’s a great way to see the future of innovation through these students’ eyes.”

Do the students come here thinking we’re going to make money off of this?

“No actually I would say the majority don’t. They come here because it’s a fun opportunity to collaborate with others. Sometimes it’s even challenging to get them to think as a business but for those who have that mindset we’re there to help support them.”

One student who did a launch a company is Andrew Konya.

“What makes it cool coming to a place like this is you can have an idea and say ‘OK, I know I can do this piece of it but I know I need this piece and this piece of it also to complete it.’ So just start ‘Hey bud, what do you do? Do you program? Do you know this language? Oh you do, OK, grab him.”

Andrew Konya developed prototype software at a hackathon and has now launched his own company, Remesh.

At last year’s hackathon, Konya developed a prototype of his invention. It allows a group of people to have a conversation with another group of people by translating their ideas into a single statement at a time. Yes, it’s a little more ambitious than Candy Crush game. His company, Remesh, has since received 200 thousand dollars in funding. And yet he’s back, losing sleep at another hackathon.

"It’s kind of cool to come back and support and encourage and see what new ideas are happening. So many new things, so quickly. This is the place to keep up with it because you can read stuff online but by the time it hits the press it’s existed for months or already been backed by something but when it happens here you might be witnessing the very first time this thing has ever existed. I just think that’s super cool. Wow.”

Another student at the tech hackathon, Preena Suri, will be back for the fashion hackathon for high tech clothing this week. Her fashion school has a TechStyle lab that includes a 3D body scanner and laser cutting tools that she wants use.

Fashion student Preena Suri shows what a laser cutter can do with fabric.

"I thought it would be a great idea to meet different people from a different backgrounds because there are more computer science people. Like when you’re working with adaptive clothing I need people who know about software because 3D scanner then transforms into software that I have no knowledge about. So it’s basically about networking and getting more people to know about it. “

Competition is expected to be fierce for the fashion hackathon this weekend. With real money and careers on the line, these campus hackathons may become more entertaining than the football team.