The MIX

Blimps and business collide at the Mason Innovation Exchange

Sarah Holland — Fri, 24 May 2024 15:01:55 +0000

Blimps and business collide at the Mason Innovation Exchange Sarah Holland Fri, 05/24/2024 - 11:01

Building a drone and building a business are, at first glance, two very different tasks. Academically, you’d be hard pressed to find a robotics course in a business school, and vice versa. But at the Mason Innovation Exchange (MIX), all that separates these two is a staircase.

From the fabrication floor to the incubator’s loft, the MIX is demonstrating how principles of entrepreneurship and innovation aren’t so easily siloed with two new courses: BLIMP and Student Innovator Mastermind.

The MIX BLIMP workshop was an outgrowth of an Office of Naval Research-funded Bio-inspired Lighter-than-air Instructional Mechatronics Program, developed to expand unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)—or drone—education, with a desire to build a pipeline for students to participate in the biannual Defend the Republic lighter-than-air robotics competition. In this course, students learn introductory concepts of UAVs and, within small interdisciplinary groups, build their own blimps with flapping wing mechanisms.

Daigo Shishika helps students flight test their blimps in the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC). Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

“We use organic life as the inspiration for these builds,” said instructor Daigo Shishika, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. “Students study the biomechanics of fish, insects, and birds, and then use those principles of flight and motion to create their own blimps.”

Each group learns how to build, program, and control flying robots. Using balloons made of mylar films, the students construct the blimp bodies and mount the electronic components—circuitry, motors, and microcontrollers—while ensuring that the blimp is well balanced.

At the end of the course, groups present their design and describe what creatures inspired their works: butterflies, stingrays, tuna, and even dragons were referenced when building.

“This process is meant to be exploratory,” explained Shishika. “I didn’t want to discourage the groups from trying out-of-the-box ideas. The dragon, for example: I wasn’t confident it would work. But they proved me wrong, and demonstrated some technical benefits of that type of wing.”

“As much as we’re teaching them the basics,” Shishika continued, “they’re teaching us new ways of thinking about design and fabrication.”

Along with the microcredential the students earn upon completion of the course, Shishika hopes they leave with a better sense of creative design and confidence in their ability to design, develop, and deploy robotics.

“It’s fun to build something from scratch and see it fly,” he said.

BLIMP flight testing in the MARC aviary. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

The Student Innovator Mastermind course uses a similar approach: building foundations while allowing space for creativity and innovation. George Mason alum Lisa Shapiro, BA Psychology ’03, Med ’06, is a seasoned business owner and entrepreneur. When she started at Mason as the MIX’s assistant director of entrepreneurship programs, the entrepreneurship incubator on the MIX’s second floor was empty.

“I wanted to reinvigorate the space and provide student innovators with a place to share ideas, develop their businesses, and form a community with other entrepreneurs,” she said.

The Student Innovator Mastermind program is a six-week mastermind group where 10 Mason student innovators and business founders gather for peer-to-peer collaboration and workshops. The inaugural mastermind cohort included students developing video games, a skincare line, mobile applications, and a business that supports the elderly population with nutritional needs—which was one of the finalists in the 2024 Patriot Pitch competition.

A key part of the programming was what Shapiro calls “transformational talks”: presentations from industry professionals that the students can immediately apply to their work. Speakers cover topics such as mindset, marketing and branding, goal setting, customer segment, and advice for business ownership.

“Being able to take what they’ve learned and immediately apply it is super important,” said Shapiro. “Entrepreneurship is super hard. You need the right mindset to be able to handle the ups and downs. I want to get them started off in the right way so they’re better prepared.”

The incubator is also a space for the students to learn from each other. Sharing ideas and challenges is, Shapiro said, a necessary part of the process. “We’ve had a phenomenal response from the students,” she said. “They’re helping each other, recommending professors and other people to meet that could help with their ideas.”

Honors College student Sahil Jagtap, who is majoring in computer science, participated in the Mastermind and the drone-prototyping programs this semester. “I have a passion for building, making, and breaking stuff. I love doing research on new and unique technologies and their potential to solve real-world problems,” he said.

The course offerings at the MIX were an opportunity for Jagtap to get hands-on experience in developing and launching tech-based solutions. “The skills I acquired from both programs, such as project management, teamwork, and technical expertise, are invaluable,” he said. “In addition, the mentorship and networking opportunities have connected me with industry professionals and potential collaborators, which will be beneficial as I continue my career in technology and entrepreneurship.”

Most of all, Shapiro and Shishika both hope that this type of programming keeps students coming back to the MIX.

“Now that they’ve had a taste of the full process,” Shishika said, “they can focus on the aspect they enjoyed the most and dig deeper, whether that’s robotics, electronics, fabrication, or something else.”

“The MIX is a space for prototyping,” Shapiro said. “It’s a place for anyone with an idea to come and try to make it a reality.”

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Create and innovate at The MIX

In This Story

Daigo Shishika

Opportunity Starts Here, Partnerships Grow Here

Colleen Rich — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 14:54:09 +0000

Opportunity Starts Here, Partnerships Grow Here Colleen Rich Fri, 04/12/2024 - 10:54

When Shrishti Singh, PhD Bioengineering ’22, came to ��AV for her doctoral studies, she had a goal in mind: developing a new technology that would allow the visualization of cancer in deep tissue and perhaps enable earlier diagnoses.

Entrepreneur Shristi Singh in her lab on Mason's Science and Technology Campus.
Read more about Singh's research. >>
Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Using a combination of FDA-approved dyes and photoacoustic imaging, Singh created an injectable dye that attaches to tumor cells and increases the contrast of those cells against the background tissue.

During her time at Mason, Singh used all the tools the university provided to bring her discovery to the marketplace. In April 2023, Singh was on one of the 15 teams that competed for $40,000 in prizes at the Costello College of Business Patriot Pitch Competition. She took home first place and the Mason’s Choice Award in the competition’s science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) track.

In November 2023, Singh was at Mason Square pitching her technology at Mason’s annual Accelerate Investor Conference, which attracts more than 400 entrepreneurs, investors, students, and members of the Washington, D.C., entrepreneurial ecosystem. She was also awarded $75,000 by the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation’s Commonwealth Commercialization Fund.

Singh, now a postdoctoral fellow at Mason, co-founded her company NIRView Biosciences with her bioengineering faculty mentors Remi Veneziano and Parag Chitnis. Singh and NIRView Biosciences have been designated a 2023 Virginia Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Success Story.

Growing Small Businesses

The Virginia SBDC, a part of Mason Enterprise, is an organization of 25 offices across Virginia providing professional advising and resources to help businesses grow. Singh participated in its Innovation Commercialization Assistance Program (ICAP), a no-cost incubator that helps technology start-ups from ideation to initial funding and beyond.

NIRView Biosciences worked with ICAP’s life science business mentors over the course of a year to position their technology for successful commercialization, and in 2023 they were accepted into the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program, which provides financial support and experiential education to help university researchers commercialize scientific discoveries.

Singh was one of 30,000 entrepreneurs who participated in a Virginia SBDC workshop, seminar, or training in 2023. Through its 16 programs, the Virginia SBDC helped 10,000 businesses, provided 40,000 hours of one-on-one counseling, offered 1,600 training programs, and incubated more than 550 companies with an impact of $3.36 billion. Of the businesses they served, 61 percent were woman- owned, 46 percent were minority-owned, and 15 percent were veteran-owned.

Paula Sorrell, associate vice president of innovation and economic development, leads Mason Enterprise. This university-based economic development organization focuses the energy, skills, and intellectual capital of Virginians on lab-to-market expansion of university research, new company creation, and small business expansion. Virginia Business magazine recently named Sorrell to its list of 100 Virginians to Meet in 2024: Innovators.

“Mason has used its university position to develop a powerhouse of interwoven federal, state, and local programs,” says Sorrell. “But even more critical are the partnerships among the private and public organizations that help support and codevelop the programs and mentor innovators.”

Through a broad array of activities that include business counseling, workshops, training, and connections to Mason assets—faculty research, classes, and potential interns—Mason Enterprise strengthens the strategy development and operations of businesses, governments, and other institutions throughout Virginia and the region. The Virginia APEX Accelerator (DoD) helps small businesses compete for government contracts, which total more than $1.5 billion annually.

The Virginia SBDC is also part of the larger Mason Virginia Promise, which offers a pathway to a bachelor’s degree or help starting a small business to any Virginian who wants one.

In 2023, Mason also expanded its small business incubator programs to the Town of Herndon, with the aim of empowering more Northern Virginia businesses with high growth potential. Herndon becomes the fifth Northern Virginia locale to partner with Mason Enterprise, joining Fairfax, Arlington, Fauquier County, and Springfield.

And the Virginia SBDC is also going global. Its International Business Development Program was a stage one and a stage two winner in the 2023 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition from the U.S. Small Business Administration. It received $50,000 and then $150,000 to build strategic partnerships that will support the launch, growth, and scale of STEM and research and development-focused small businesses that target international markets.

Research Impacting Society

Mason Enterprise operates two federal programs in support of all Virginia universities: the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program, designed to guide researchers and students on the first steps toward commercializing a technical discovery, and the National Institutes of Health’s REACH program, which funds proof-of-concept research for promising biohealth technologies.

Sorrell and her team are also mentoring entrepreneurs through the annual Accelerate Investor Conference, which is an investor event and start-up business competition held at Mason Square that showcases the mid-Atlantic region as a powerhouse for innovation and business opportunity.

The competition fuels innovation-based business growth by showcasing the best and brightest new tech start-ups to potential investors to foster their development within the region.

Among those angel investors and companies supplying prize money to Accelerate entrepreneurs was Mason alum Sumeet Shrivastava, MBA ’94. A leader in the government IT industry, Shrivastava recently launched the Shrivastava Family Refugee and Immigrant Success through Entrepreneurship (RISE) Program, which focuses on mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs from refugee and immigrant back-grounds. Nanomaterial research and development company NanoBioFAB received the Shrivastava Family RISE Program prize at last fall’s conference.

Mason’s Costello College of Business Patriot Pitch Competition offers support and resources to student-led start-ups. Now in its 23rd year, the competition is open to all Mason students and recent alumni and attracted 50 teams from across the university last year. Powering the success of the student and alumni pitch teams were more than a dozen mentors who are CEOs, consultants, entrepreneurs, start-up coaches, Mason faculty, and alumni. By sharing their real-world experience in launching and managing start-ups, mentors were incredibly valuable to the teams.

The finalists, including Singh, pitched to judging panels of local business leaders whose professional experience included consulting, derivatives exchange, energy consulting, food technology, nonprofits, and venture capital.

The Mason Innovation Exchange, also known as the MIX, is also part of Mason Enterprise and helps student entrepreneurs. With its makerspace and fabrication lab, a digital media lab, and a start-up incubator, the MIX offers creative thinkers everything from metal fabrication to business mentoring. It is open to all members of the Mason community regardless of their major or affiliation. Currently, there are six student start-ups in the MIX’s incubator. Mentors meet individually with student entrepreneurs and provide a range of business advice.

In 2023, the Virginia Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) recognized Gisele Stolz, senior director of entrepreneurship and innovation programs at Mason, with an Impact Award for her work with its cyber-security start-up internship program.

“From envisioning the internship program to building out the structure of the Commonwealth Cyber Incubator and Accelerator Program cohort programming, few people within the CCI network have had such a widespread impact as Gisele,” says Liza Wilson Durant, associate provost for strategic initiatives and community engagement at Mason and director of the CCI Northern Virginia Node.

Under Stolz’s stewardship, the internship program attracted more than 700 applicants, placing 83 Mason undergraduates with more than 50 companies. Of the students placed, 73 percent received offers for follow-up positions with their host company, including full-time employment.

Beyond this internship program, the CCI Northern Virginia Node, led by Mason and headquartered at Mason Square in Arlington, supported experiential learning opportunities for more than 3,000 students, including more than 100 internships and apprenticeships in cybersecurity.

The MIX's makerspace enables Mason students to create prototypes of their inventions. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Talent Development = Workforce Development

All these Mason opportunities align with the university’s vision of graduating students who can power Northern Virginia’s economic engine and serve in areas of critical need, while also providing a pathway of opportunity to all Virginians.

“Mason is committed to providing novel and varied experiential learning opportunities for our students, preparing our workforce for the future and readying them to compete on a global scale,” says Andre Marshall, vice president of research, innovation, and economic impact at Mason.

The need for well-trained health professionals, across disciplines and among fields, is one of the most critical issues facing communities in Virginia and throughout the nation. The Mason Center for the Health Workforce was established in 2022 to help address the shortage in Virginia. The center supports the development and delivery of public-private strategies to optimize physical and behavioral health career education and postgraduate skill training. It also serves as a technical assistance center for health workforce research, program evaluation, and planning and analysis for government agencies, academic entities, and professional organizations.

Mason’s Center for Community Mental Health in Fairfax is unique in its dual function as both a working clinic and a training facility. Last year, the center helped train 77 undergraduates and 57 graduate students while providing more than 2,100 therapy sessions to the community.

In 2019, Mason joined the commonwealth’s Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP). The top TTIP goal is to build and sustain a diverse tech talent pathway, and Mason, as the largest and most diverse public university in Virginia, and the largest producer of technology talent among four-year institutions in the state, is poised to lead.

At that time, Mason agreed to educate about 30 percent of the 25,000 additional graduates in tech fields over the next two decades to serve regional and state employers, including Amazon and its HQ2. Mason continues to exceed its goals. In 2023, Mason was 281 percent over its bachelor of science target and 192 percent over its master of science target in terms of graduating students in computing and computing-related majors.

Mason is also working to add faculty members in computer science and related fields to teach and mentor these students. The College of Engineering and Computing will soon expand into Fuse at Mason Square. The college is already working to build robust curricula for students in Arlington and provides ample opportunities to explore skills through research opportunities, state-of-the-art labs, hackathons and competitions, and student organizations.

Computer science student Quang Vo demonstrated virtual reality applications that will be part of the visualization labs at Fuse at Mason Square. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

If You Build It…

From Mason Square in Arlington to the Science and Technology Campus in Manassas, Mason is building a new economic corridor along Route 66 in Northern Virginia.

Fuse at Mason Square, the university’s LEED Platinum building opening this summer, is a digital innovation center that will house research and development labs, corporate centers, incubators, accelerators, and convening spaces, alongside classrooms and retail spaces.

The SciTech Campus is home to the new outdoor Forensic Science Research and Training Laboratory—or “body farm,” one of only eight in the country—and the Biomedical Research Lab, one of 12 biosafety level-3 labs in the nation.

New to this campus is the Nanofabrication Facility, which is the only cleanroom facility and resource of its kind for partners in Northern Virginia and offers hands-on nanofabrication workforce training in research applications that will accelerate the growth of high-tech companies.

“The most powerful asset we offer is opportunity,” says Marshall. “Only through providing opportunity can we educate, inspire, and equip the next generation of leaders to solve the grand challenges of our day.”

Jennifer Anzaldi, Sarah Holland, John Hollis, Katie Maney, and Ryley McGinnis contributed to this feature.

As Virginia's largest public research university, Mason is an economic driver in the region and the state.

Learn more about Tech Talent at Mason

In This Story

Drone masterclass helps students explore real-world problems for first responders

Sarah Holland — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 18:29:01 +0000

Drone masterclass helps students explore real-world problems for first responders Sarah Holland Mon, 12/04/2023 - 13:29

“Imagine a time when hearing the buzz of a drone is not a sound of fear, or annoyance, but instead a sound of hope,” said Dallia Laban, an electrical engineering major at ��AV.

Dallia Laban opens her group's presentation. Photo by Evan Cantwell/��AV

Laban provided the opening to her team’s proposed drone innovation: a CPR drone they’ve named Skylife Support. This drone, they explained, could be deployed by first responders to reach patients and provide emergency CPR while an ambulance is enroute. After their four-minute presentation, a panel of judges asked them about growth projections and certification requirements. The audience applauded, the team returned to their seats, and the next team began their presentation on a drone system that could filter air to combat post-wildfire pollution.

Christopher Vo calls this a “Shark-Tank style pitch competition,” which closes out his Unmanned Aerial Systems Prototyping course. The Fall 2023 course marks the third successful semester of the course’s programming.

Vo is a two-time Mason alum, receiving both his MS in Computer Science ’07 and PhD in Computer Science ’14. After graduating with his PhD, Vo co-founded Sentian Robotics and served as its chief scientist until earlier this year. Sentian Robotics develops novel drone technology, such as the Hive—a drone fleet aircraft carrier.

In addition to being an accomplished robotics scientist, Vo also has a passion for teaching. “I’ve always wanted to bring drones and other new technologies out of the labs and into the real world,” he said. This course allows him to get back into the classroom and bring his knowledge as a start-up owner and robotics professional to a new cohort of students each semester. This kind of partnership is a hallmark of Mason’s entrepreneurial approach, which earned it the top ranking among public universities for research performance in entrepreneurship.

The masterclass, hosted by the Mason Innovation Exchange (MIX), is an eight-week program that meets every Thursday evening throughout October and November. Out of 300 applicants, only 30 students are selected to participate. They represent a wide range of degree programs and education levels, from first-semester freshmen in the Global Affairs Program to graduating PhDs in mechanical engineering. While the course is noncredit, students earn a microcredential upon completion.

Of course, the appeal of a course like this is in the drones. Building a drone and learning to pilot the drones is what inspires most students to apply. But Vo emphasizes that drone construction and piloting is only a small part of the overall course.

“The program is more about how you can use this technology in the real world, so the course is built around our students developing a solution to a real-world problem in first response and law enforcement using drone technology and pitching that solution to stakeholders.”

Students are put into teams based on their degree programs—Vo ensures an equal distribution of engineers and humanities students, as well as diversity of degree level amongst each team. While learning the technology and building a drone, teams must decide on a problem to tackle, theorize a solution, develop a prototype, and pitch their idea to stakeholders.

While learning the nuances of drone building and piloting, students heard from Steve Burmeister of Mason’s Forensic Science Program on emergency preparedness, and Kerin Hilker-Balkissoon, the director of educational and career pathways in the College of Science, on microcredentialing.

A student shows his group's miniature prototype during their presentation. Photo by Evan Cantwell/��AV.

Before the pitch competition, students learn the foundations of pitching from Lisa Shapiro, assistant director of entrepreneurship programs in the Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact; Fred Briggs, founder and CEO of Applied Impact Robotics; and Gisele Stolz, senior director of entrepreneurship programs and business incubators in the Office of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development.

The top two groups in the pitch competition receive a monetary prize to be split among team members; the third prize goes to the “People’s Choice.” Students are not allowed to vote for their own design.

This year’s judges include Jordan Higgins, adjunct faculty in Mason’s School of Art and lead human-centered engineer at MITRE; Mike Koontz, MS Computer Engineering ’08 and director of mission technologies at Raytheon; and Kuzeyhan Ozdemir, a seasoned start-up mentor and one of the MIX’s in-house mentors.

Because the course incorporates elements of programming, engineering, creative problem-solving, and entrepreneurship, diversity of thought and skill on each team is critical to teams’ success.

“It’s a unique opportunity for our students to work with truly interdisciplinary teams. They don’t often get the chance to cross-pollinate in standard coursework,” Vo explained. “This course really emphasizes the importance and value of collaboration, cooperation, and learning from other disciplines.”

As of now, the projects end with the conclusion of the course. But Vo hopes to see teams carry on after the course to fully develop their solutions into marketable products.

“We can solve wicked problems through interdisciplinary innovation,” he said. “And that’s what I’m hoping our students take away from this course.”

Learn more about The MIX

Topics

Unmanned Aerial Systems drones

The MIX

Forensic Science Program

Tech Talent Investment Pipeline (TTIP)

TTIP

Tech Talent Investment Program

Toy-building event at Mason's MIX marks marvelous start to Innovation Week

Tama Moni — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 21:43:42 +0000

Toy-building event at Mason's MIX marks marvelous start to Innovation Week Tama Moni Fri, 02/24/2023 - 16:43

In 1951, the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) founded Engineers Week—a week-long event held every February that highlights the influence of STEM education and practice. During Engineers Week, NSPE advocates for diversity and inclusion in the engineering workforce by supporting outreach to children and young adults hoping to inspire the next generation of engineers. The College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) at ��AV joined this event by hosting Innovation Week. This year’s theme, ‘Creating the Future: Innovating in Solidarity,’ aims to match these NSPE goals by presenting activities that show how engineers and computing professionals can improve the world.

Kicking off the week, the CEC’s Office of Diversity, Outreach, and Inclusive Learning (DOIL) partnered with the Mason Innovation Exchange (MIX) by inviting the community to build toys that will be donated to the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project. Mercadi Crawford, a diversity associate at DOIL, said her team formed a committee with CEC faculty and staff to create this event.

“We wanted to make sure that we were helping the community in some way. So, we reached out to the playtime nonprofit organization, which is an organization that provides recess and play spaces for unhoused youth,” Mercadi Crawford, diversity associate, College of Engineering and Computing

CEC Maker Space Day at the MIX - students and faculty design, build, and create custom toys in the MIX for the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

This event was free, interactive, and publicly accessible, and offered participants a chance to make a difference in the community. Yuta Sugiyama, a senior computational data science major in the College of Science, works at the MIX and came up with the idea for the toy project.

“Part of my job at the MIX is to assist or get on board with projects from other departments and students by offering my skills and talents. Knowing that the cause was homeless children, I wanted to assist by designing a toy that would inspire homeless children to become engineers and hopefully get them out of their situation," Sugiyama said.

Tim Nielsen, the manager for the MIX, said Sugiyama suggested the idea of building interactive toys that the children would play with. He said he wanted to transform the toy into Mr. Potato Head to add an “element of play” to the toy. “We wanted something that was designed from scratch. We wanted it to be something that’s good,” Nielsen said.

Nielsen explained how the MIX provides a creative outlet for students, organizations, and the public.

“I want the folks who are here to not just be doing an activity, but doing an activity that is engaging with the space so they kinda see what’s available here,” he said.

Students built the toys using multiple pre-made laser-cut wood pieces, pipettes, and googly eyes. They bonded the pieces together with glue. This interactive activity resembled building a puzzle, with participants using mathematical perspective and creativity to make art.

Brittany Johnson-Matthews, assistant professor in the computer science department, served on the event’s organizing committee. “These types of activities I find to be important to kind of bring balance to STEM education and STEM training. As well as to make people realize that it can be fun to do technical and stimulating things," she said.

To generate interest in the event, flyers, and social media posts were distributed on the CEC digital and print platforms. Perhaps the best way was word of mouth, as Theo Zamani, a junior mechanical engineering major, learned about it. Zamani, the president of the Mason American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) chapter, promoted the event with ASME members.

“I took this project on and promoted it to help the cause. It was the first time this was done, and this was a great way for people to give back to the community.”

She said having fellow students participate in activities like this can be beneficial in many ways. “It’s a great way to give back. It’s also nice as a hands-on activity. I hope we have events like this in the future.”

About the MIX
The MIX which is located on the ground floor of Horizon Hall on the Mason Fairfax Campus. This collaborative space hosts workshops, competitions, and accelerator programs for the public and provides opportunities for them to build creative projects.

Topics

The MIX

Diversity and Inclusive Learning

Community Engagement

College of Engineering and Computing

Students

Student entrepreneurs do their 'homework' before starting company

Colleen Rich — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 18:12:58 +0000

Student entrepreneurs do their 'homework' before starting company Colleen Rich Mon, 12/05/2022 - 13:12

Learn more about the MIX's incubator

In late 2021, just after moving to Northern Virginia from Dallas, Texas, to attend ��AV, Arastalis B. Choudhury’s car was stolen. The difficulties he encountered as a result of that crime gave him an idea.

Student entrepreneurs Arastalis B. Choudhury and Fariha Askar. Photo by Cristian Torres/Strategic Communications

He called the police and reported it, got a case number, and the process began. But Choudhury, a communication major, figured there had to be a better way.

“The system is, respectfully, ‘old school,’ and things just weren't really up to date with how technology is today,” he said.

He wrote down all his thoughts on how the system could be better and shared them with his friend and fellow Mason student Fariha Askar, who is majoring in computational and data sciences. She then took his ideas and constructed a flow chart of how the system could work.

That’s when the real work began. They started their research with attorney to have a patentability search done. “After around three or four days, the lawyer got back to us, and it was great news,” said Choudhury. “He told us that our idea was novel, that there was nothing like it out there.”

But they were at a loss for what to do next, so they turned to their resources at Mason, reaching out to professors in computer science and data sciences for informational interviews. “We got a lot of responses from the professors, and we started sitting down with them,” said Askar.

It was James Baldo, director of the graduate Data Analytics Engineering Program in the College of Engineering and Computing, who connected them to the Mason Innovation Exchange (MIX) and its incubator program. The MIX is also where they met computer science major Rediet Tadesse, who loved their idea and wanted to work them.

And that’s how their company NECX, which stands for Non-Emergency Communication Exchange, was born.

“The reason we have non-emergency our name is to clarify that we're not here to replace 911 at all,” said Choudhury.

Tadesse immediately began working on a prototype while Choudhury and Askar continued their research, which include interviewing members of the Mason and Fairfax County police departments about day-to-day operations and taking a deep dive into victim services.

“We knew the problem isn't that [the police] don't do anything—it’s more the flood of information,” said Askar.

Their solution is a multi-platform service, which includes a free mobile app for the victims of crime and a computer web app, which is accessible by a computer for the police and detectives to do all their work. There is also a platform dedicated to victim services.

“We've connected these three platforms together into central database, which allows information and data to transfer and all of them to communicate with each other,” said Choudhury.

They also took their idea to the national pitch competition TiE, coming in eighth out of 68 teams from around the country.

As a part of the MIX’s incubator, the team was able to take part in the mini Innovation Commercialization Assistance Program (ICAP), which is an abbreviated version of the program offered to entrepreneurs through Virginia’s Small Business Development Centers, and were mentored by Senior Business Counselor David Powell.

Askar found the ICAP “homework,” documents that asked in-depth questions about their business, really valuable. And both found being with other entrepreneurs—and their critiques—very helpful.

“There were a few teams that were a bit ahead of us,” said Askar. “It provided a lot of insight because we could learn from their problems and also see problems to come.”

One of their biggest takeaways from the training is what they learned about customer segmentation.

“We had a very hard time figuring out who our customer was,” said Choudhury. “We knew how it could help this problem that was out in the world, but we didn't know who exactly would pay for it. ICAP really helped us with that.”

Topics

Students

entrepreneurship

The MIX

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

College of Science

This graduating engineer is an inventor at heart

Colleen Rich — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 16:01:45 +0000

This graduating engineer is an inventor at heart Colleen Rich Mon, 12/05/2022 - 11:01

Senior Sai Srivatsav Gutala has been busy during his time at ��AV, and he has a lot of big ideas.

Inventor Sai Srivatsav Gutala is graduating with a BS in electrical engineering. Photo by Cristian Torres/Strategic Communications

In 2019, as a sophomore, the electrical engineering major started a student club called the Inventors and Innovations Team (IIT) with one of his classmates, computer engineering major Nicholas Paschke.

“We wanted to give students an opportunity to build whatever it is that tickles their mind,” he said of the club that still meets in the makerspace at the Mason Innovation Exchange (MIX) in Horizon Hall on the Fairfax Campus. “As long as it's reasonable and innovative, we agreed to it and tried to create it. Since IIT started, our vision has been to have multiple teams working on building different projects at the same time.”

Current IIT projects include a fire-detecting drone that could help with wildfires and a sensing cane for the visually impaired. Some ideas will fail, but this doesn’t bother Gutala, who graduates with a bachelor of science this month. It is the ideas themselves and the execution that interest him.

As he approached his senior year, Gutala wanted to take things to the next level and founded the hardware hackathon, HackOverflow.

“Its purpose was all about giving students the hands-on opportunity to create something grand,” said Gutala, who recently served as the chair of HackOverflow’s executive committee and is now an advisor.

They partnered with an existing hackathon at Mason, Patriot Hacks, and Mason’s Institute of Digital Innovation's executive director Kammy Sanghera. The event took place in March 2022 at the MIX.

While many hackathons focus on coding, HackOverflow had students using the MIX’s 3D printer, soldering station, and other equipment to create prototypes of their ideas. Gutala said it is one of only a handful of hardware hackathons in the country.

“Throughout the process, Sai ensured that participants of HackOverflow had the resources and mentors to design prototypes,” said Sanghera. “From building his executive team to seeking sponsorships for the event, Sai was professional and diligent. Through initiatives like IIT and HackOverflow, Sai generated opportunities for his peers to change the world positively.”

Gutala has also started a company called Alphawave and has been one of the student entrepreneurs in the MIX’s incubator space. With Alphawave, Gutala is developing appearance-customizable apparel. He began with footwear—and he already has a prototype—but Gutala sees this as the beginning of using technology to customize personal items for self-expression.

Through the incubator program, Gutala was able to have his own space within the MIX and use of the program’s professional development resources, such as the mini Innovation Commercialization Assistance Program (ICAP) program offered to Mason student entrepreneurs. Gutala said he found the mini “the most helpful thing ever.”

“ICAP focuses on finding your ideal customer that will be loyal to your company,” said Gutala. “If a business can understand their customer, everything else is easy.”

Topics

College of Engineering and Computing

Volgenau School of Engineering

Hackathon

Institute for Digital InnovAtion (IDIA)

Electrical Engineering

MIXing it up: Student innovators find a place to create

Colleen Rich — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 15:46:49 +0000

MIXing it up: Student innovators find a place to create Colleen Rich Mon, 12/05/2022 - 10:46

It has been busy year at the Mason Innovation Exchange (MIX). Since the ��AV makerspace opened in its new space in Horizon Hall in September 2021, it has seen a lot of traffic—more than 9,000 visitors in spring 2022—and has some successes to report.

Students work on a the sustainable container challenge sponsored by Mason's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

The MIX, a part of Mason Enterprise, is home to a makerspace and fabrication lab, a digital media lab, and a startup incubator, offering creative thinkers everything from metal fabrication to business mentoring. It is open to all members of the Mason community regardless of their major or affiliation.

They also hired two in-house mentors: Nantuit founder and CEO Rashed Hasan, who is also executive-in-residence at Mason’s School of Business, and George Siragusa, a senior business counselor at Mason Enterprise Center’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC). Gisele Stolz, senior director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programs at Mason, also serves as a mentor. These mentors meet one-on-one with student entrepreneurs and provide a range of business and entrepreneurship advice.

While the MIX never had any problems attracting students in their old space in the original Fenwick Library, Stolz said the new space allows them to be more deliberate in their planning.

“This new space was an opportunity to rethink the whole operation,” said Stolz. “We’ve been practicing what we preach and applying lean startup methods to test to see what works and what doesn’t.”

Among the things that are definitely working is the small business incubator. Part of the new Horizon Hall space includes the start-up incubator space, which has 10 desks, including eight dedicated to student-led businesses. Stolz calls these desks “high-value real estate in the heart of the Fairfax Campus.”

A student uses the 3D printer in the MIX. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

In addition to having a dedicated space in proximity to all the amenities available in the makerspace, teams in the incubator also have access to the mentors and professional development. At the start of the academic year, the MIX had seven student companies in residence.

In the spring Stolz and her team organized a shortened version of the Innovation Commercialization Assistance Program (ICAP), a program offered by the Virginia SBDC to help Virginia-led startups, for student and faculty entrepreneurs.

The three-week mini ICAP was taught by SBDC’s Senior Business Counselor David Powell and ICAP Director Josh Green. The lessons had a remarkable effect on student entrepreneurs. The course taught the student entrepreneurs a lot of the nuts and bolts about the business operations of starting a company such as creating a minimal viable product (MVP), registering the company with the state, and tax considerations.

Electrical engineering major Sai Gutala said he found the mini ICAP offered by the MIX “the most helpful thing ever.”

Gutala and his company Alphawave are part of the MIX’s incubator. With Alphawave, Gutala is developing appearance-customizable apparel. He started with footwear—and he already has a prototype that was made with the MIX’s 3D printer—but Gutala sees this as the beginning of using technology to customize personal items for self-expression. For him, the big takeaway from the mini ICAP is what he learned about customer segmentation.

“ICAP focuses on finding your ideal customer that will be loyal to your company,” said Gutala, who also founded a club during his time at Mason. “If a business can understand their customer, everything else is easy.”

See all the MIX has to offer

Topics

Drone Prototyping Workshop @ the MIX

Rebecca Howick — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 19:41:14 +0000

Drone Prototyping Workshop @ the MIX Rebecca Howick Wed, 08/31/2022 - 15:41

8 week course

Thursdays Starting THIS Thursday, September 15

4:30-6:30pm

Horizon Hall 1408

Applications close September 12th

Topics

Drones

The MIX

Business Buzz

Mason students refurbish donated laptops for community members

Colleen Rich — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 17:07:57 +0000

Mason students refurbish donated laptops for community members Colleen Rich Mon, 08/15/2022 - 13:07

Some Northern Virginia families will have free laptops in time for classes this fall, thanks to an enterprising group of ��AV information technology students.

On Saturday, August 13, the VA STAR student group turned over 20 refurbished laptops to Arlington nonprofits for distribution. Photo courtesy of IDIA

The students—seniors Judy Yang, Dennis Amoah, and Sital Luitel—have been refurbishing more than 20 used laptops, donated through the Virginia Student Training and Refurbishment Program (VA STAR), and preparing them for their new owners.

Senior Judy Yang started the student group that refurbished the laptops. Photo by Cristian Torres/Strategic Communications

On Saturday, August 13, the laptops were given to representatives from the Arlington nonprofits Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing, American Legion Post 139, Bridges to Independence, Doorways, and PathForward, who will place them with their new owners.

The program, which is sponsored by Mason’s Institute for Digital Innovation and the Institute for a Sustainable Earth, was started by Yang, who has been doing this kind of work since elementary school. She began working on computers through the GEMS (Girls Excelling in Math and Science) Club while attending Herndon Elementary School and never stopped. She has wanted to establish a VA STAR group at Mason since she was a freshman.

Yang’s favorite part of the computer repair work is the opportunity to give back to the community.

“I enjoy seeing students and their families get the resources they need,” she said. “These computers will enable them to do so many things online, from getting assignments done to applying for jobs.”

She said she hopes that the laptops also provide some stress relief for recipients, acknowledging that many families struggle to pay for technology.

Yang and her colleagues have been working on the laptops in the Mason Innovation Exchange (MIX) makerspace in Horizon Hall, which has the tools they require and space to work.

Dennis Amoah. Photo provided

Luitel was new to computer repair work and said she “learned a ton” while working with the VA STAR group. “It is a very gratifying experience to be able to help others while also bettering my own skills and learning more about the technology field,” she said.

Amoah said he joined the program because he wanted to learn more about computer repair. “I thought it would be cool to learn how to fix my own computers and replace any broken parts whenever it breaks,” he said.

He was surprised at how many computers the three of them were able refurbish.

Yang plans to continue the program in the fall semester and hopes to recruit more volunteers to work on the donated laptops.

Sital Luitel. Photo provided

Volunteers can gain a hands-on experience with computers, and the opportunity can expose them to concepts that could come in handy as they prepare for their careers, Yang said. And students don’t need to be information technology majors to participate in the program.

Niki Vlastara, an assistant professor of marketing in Mason’s School of Business, served as a mentor to VA STAR group, and Toni Andrews, senior associate director in the university’s Office of Community and Local Government Relations, helped connect them with area nonprofits interested in placing the laptops.

“Mason students are passionate about using their skills to give back to others, and this is just one of several efforts to build strong ties with the Arlington community,” said Kamaljeet Sanghera, IDIA executive director. “We are excited and looking forward to many more initiatives in the coming years.”

Topics

Students

Institute for Digital InnovAtion (IDIA)

The MIX

College of Engineering and Computing

information technology

Mason Square

Working on spacecraft and 3D-printed solar cars, junior accelerates his career at Mason

Mariam Aburdeineh — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 19:15:24 +0000

Working on spacecraft and 3D-printed solar cars, junior accelerates his career at Mason Mariam Aburdeineh Tue, 01/25/2022 - 14:15

In This Story

John Shortle

Syed Abbas Zaidi

Michael Riggi, president of Mason's solar car team, Hypernova Solar, poses with Orion, a solar car his team revamped. Photo provided by Hypernova Solar.

Since Michael Riggi was about six years old, his father and brother would take him to a “Cars and Coffee” show in Great Falls, Virginia, on weekends. Being around classic automobiles and luxury vehicles, Riggi said he developed an appreciation for cars, and other machines that go fast, including planes, boats, and rockets.

Riggi developed an appreciation for cars at a young age. Portrait by Michael Riggi.

Now, as a junior at ��AV, his career path has also been racing forward.

The systems engineering major working on an accelerated master’s degree is the president of Hypernova Solar, a student organization creating what they believe will be the world’s first 3D-printed solar car.

Ultimately, Riggi said he aspires to work in the aerospace industry. His work with Hypernova Solar combined with his degree helped him land an internship with the global aerospace, defense, and security company, Northrop Grumman, he said.

“[Systems engineering] is in high demand in almost all tech industries,” Riggi said.

“Mason is one of the only schools I found in this area that offered a system engineering major, and Mason’s program was ranked higher than [the University of Virginia]’s,” he said. “I chose Mason off their great program.”

When Riggi interned with Northrop Grumman in summer 2021, he said he worked on spacecraft that go up to the international space station—in particular, the Cygnus Mission. Riggi said his tasks involved taking measurements, estimating error, and creating a CAD model of the thruster.

Riggi interning at Northrop Grumman. Photo provided.

“We made a tool that allowed Mission Control to quickly throw in measurements of the motors to see how it affects the angle of the spacecraft on-the-fly, so they can steer the spacecraft,” Riggi said.

“The qualities about Michael that impressed me and my colleagues [at Northrop Grumman] were his imagination and ability to tackle a task that was initially beyond the scope of his previous experience,” said Roseann Alvarez, systems engineering manager at Northrop Grumman. “He shows plenty of growth potential and will be an asset to any future employer.”

“Based on Michael’s performance and his contributions to the [Commercial Resupply Services] program, I would highly recommend Northrop Grumman recruitment of Mason interns and graduates in the future,” she said.

Riggi said he’s excited to intern again with Northrop Grumman in summer 2022.

“There’s something about being on the cutting edge of technology and science that I really love,” he said. “[My internship] helped me realize what traits I value in a workplace and helped me realize specific parts of my education to focus on because I’ve seen what’s actually needed in the workforce.”

In addition to opportunities in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, Riggi said he has enjoyed learning from supportive Mason professors including John Shortle, Abbas Zaidi, and Colin Reagle.

“Michael embodies the ideal of a systems engineer, being able to assemble and lead a large team of students with diverse skills to design, build, and test a complex system,” Shortle said. “He’s a great ambassador for the discipline and will be a great asset in the workforce.”

When he’s not leading Hypernova Solar, Riggi said he enjoys going off-roading and taking photos.

When he's not leading Hypernova Solar, Mason student Michael Riggi enjoys going off-roading with his truck and taking photos. Photo by Michael Riggi.

Photography by Michael Riggi.

“It’s really a great way to blow off steam and relax,” Riggi said, suggesting diverse activities help keep his life balanced yet exciting. “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s being bored.”

That’s another reason he appreciates the opportunities at Mason.

“My favorite part of Mason is the community,” Riggi said. “The diverse student population has taught me so much and helped me make so many friends, the amazing faculty have been so helpful, and the community of Fairfax is very diverse and a great space to explore.”

Riggi (front left in green) with members of Mason's solar car team, Hypernova Solar. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications/��AV