Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/406930
■ Everybody hates ads, right? But what if people were actually paid to view them? Now there's an intelligent Android app called Slidejoy that pays users to view ads whenever they unlock their smartphones. It was created by a team from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and it won the $30,000 Perlman Grand Prize of the 2014 Wharton Business Plan Competition. Team members Sanghoon Kwak, Jaeho Chung, and Robert Seo explain that, over time, Slide- joy learns user preferences, allow- ing it to curate "a more profitable and relevant user experience." Users are paid between $5 and $15 per month for using the app. In the first three months of the app's life, it was downloaded more than 20,000 times, and it delivered more than 26 million ad impressions. Initial advertisers included Groupon, Best Buy, Adi- das, J. Crew, and Macy's. Learn more at www.getslide joy.com/. ■ Businesses and educators alike are calling for more students to learn science, technology, engineering, and math—but many school districts can't afford to invest much in the way of hands- on training in these STEM dis- ciplines. Aditya Kumarakrishnan hopes to change that by equip- ping the Tesla Truck. The STEM/ hands-on lab and "mobile maker space" will bring courses like robot-building, flight design, 3D printing, and vocational training to schools and the local community. Kumarakrishnan, a student at Queens College, won the top $10,000 prize in the CUNY IVE SmartPitch Challenge, designed for student teams from New York colleges. The competition was hosted in June by the CUNY Institute for Virtual Enterprise and the Lawrence N. Field Center for Entrepreneurship at Baruch Col- lege. Kumarakrishnan planned to use the prize money to buy his first truck. Kumarakrishnan came up with the idea while he was mentor- ing a robotics team in a Bronx classroom and realized the kids had no resources. He believed that a mobile lab would be use- ful and cost-efficient for city schools that didn't offer traditional shop classes. See him describe his idea at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=v1DVN4FPyuo. ■ Unmanned drones have long been staples in the military, but like many inventions devised for war, they're being co-opted for commercial use. Late last year, a startup named Squadrone System unveiled HEXO+, a drone with integrated cameras that track an iPhone, allowing the operator to conduct aerial filming almost anywhere. The founders expect the camera drone to be particularly useful for recording extreme sporting events that take place in snow or mountains. Squadrone was created with the help of IncubaGEM, a startup incubator located at Grenoble Ecole de Manage- ment in France that provides up to 18 months of support for students and alums launching new enterprises. Among Squad- rone's founders was Medhi Mugnier, an advanced masters student in entrepreneurship at GEM, and Sylvain Montreuil, who graduated from Grenoble in 2005. Other team members are Antoine Level, Christophe Baillon, snowboarder Xavier de Le Rue, and producer Matthieu Giraud. In June 2014, they kicked off a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, and it raised more than $1 million within a month. See more details at www.kick starter.com/projects/sqdr/ hexo-your-autonomous-aerial- camera. ■ One of the most promising aspects of innovative thinking is its potential to improve the quality of life for those struggling with adversity. That is the goal for Gregory Mattes, a 2014 MBA graduate from the Indiana Uni- versity Kelley School of Business in Bloomington. Through a new startup called Analog Computing Solutions (ACS), Mattes hopes to improve the quality, speed, and longevity of hearing aids and myoelectric prosthetic devices. Mattes created a business plan to commercialize analog computer technology originally developed by Ken Yoshida, asso- ciate professor of bioengineering at Indiana University-Purdue Uni- versity Indianapolis. The technol- ogy was based on an invention developed nearly 20 years ago by Jonathan Mills, a professor of informatics and computing at IU Bloomington. The technology was licensed by IU's Research and Technology Corporation. Mattes' company will use low- power analog computing technol- ogy to prolong battery life, boost the sound filtering algorithms of hearing aids, and improve the signal processing function of prosthetics. His plan received $100,000 in startup funding in IU's Building Entrepreneurs in Software and Technology competition. Read more about Mattes' company at analogcomputing solutions.com/team.html. Innovation That's…Inventive Business schools can nurture innovation by encouraging students to launch new ventures—and by supporting the competitions, incuba- tors, and accelerators that support fledgling entrepreneurs. Here are just a few highly creative businesses that were hatched in the past 12 months and that have drawn resources from business schools: 45 BizEd November/ December 2014