Michigan Tech College of Business Newsblog

Experience Silicon Valley over Spring Break!

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Sign-up by December 5th for the 2014 Silicon Valley Experience!

The Experience of a Lifetime

Each spring 15 students travel from Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan, to the world hub of start-ups and entrepreneurs- Silicon Valley. This eye-opening experience focuses on immersing students in real companies, with real players, and the current challenges they face.

This year, you can to go Silicon Valley during Spring Break (March 8-14). Visits with entrepreneurs, inventors, managers and companies including Brocade, Cisco, and Google will provide you with a first-hand understanding of technology built enterprises that are revolutionizing global business.

Take Advantage of This Opportunity

Brocade is once again sponsoring the trip bringing the cost to $300 per person including airfare, hotel accommodations with breakfast each morning and transportation throughout the duration of the trip.

This trip is open to all Michigan Tech students. Please pass the information along. Student participation is based on a two minute interview on “Why you want to work and live on Silicon Valley.” If you are interested in participating, please email Karen Foltz at ksfoltz@mtu.edu. You will be assigned interview time starting at 4:00 pm on December 5, 2013.

Click here to view the PDF Brochure:  SiliconValley2014

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A website of their very own

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MIS students hard at work on the 31 Backpacks website during their web design class.

The non-profit organization 31 Backpacks has been operating for a little more than one year, and is now taking a technical step forward with a website created by Michigan Technological University students.

Begun in October 2012 by Laurel and Melissa Maki, and friend Amy Zadawa, the 31 Backpacks program involves identifying children who may be going hungry over a weekend because there isn’t enough food in the house or apartment, getting parents’ permission to send food home with them, then filling the backpacks with enough food items for the weekend. None of the people involved with the organization know the identity of the students getting the food.

The website for 31 Backpacks is being created by students in a web design class of Russell Louks, Tech professor of practice in the School of Business.

“Laurel and Melissa came to my office one day and said they needed a website,” he said.

He assigned the construction of the website to seven students in two groups, Louks said. The best site from the two groups will be chosen to go online.

There were requirements for the website, including number of pages, Louks said.

“It has to have at least six,” he said. “Most of them will have eight or 10.”

One of the teams working on the website consists of Kaylee Betzinger, Seth Stever and Stacie Studer.

Betzinger said the groups had a choice of two websites to work on.

“This appealed to us more,” she said. “It’s for a charity.”

Studer said their group used the website of Love, INC as the model for their creation.

“Laurel and Melissa said they really liked Love, INC’s website,” she said.

Friday, Betzinger said they had completed six pages for the website. At one point they had seven pages, but they eliminated one.

“It’s not adding anymore value to the website to have more pages,” she said.

Betzinger said the website the group created links to 31 Backpacks Facebook page, and it will have a link to PayPal for donations.

Melissa Maki said the three creators of 31 Backpacks wanted a website right from the beginning, but they weren’t able to set one up.

“We don’t have the know-it-all to do it,” she said.

One of the requirements for the website will be that they can do maintenance and updates themselves, Melissa said. They also would like people to be able to volunteer for 31 Backpacks on the site.

Louks said the other group working on the 31 backpacks website consists of Tony Campbell, Paula Castilho, Emily Christ and Quentin Franke. The two groups began working on their versions of a website at the start of the semester in September, and it should take the entire semester.

“We’ll finish it up before Christmas break,” he said.

The site is expected to go live by the end of December, Louks said.

In other 31 Backpacks news, Laurel Maki said Chassell Township Schools are the most recent addition for the organization. They are now serving 106 students in the Public Schools of Calumet, Laurium & Keweenaw, including the district’s Horizon Alternative High School; Chassell Township Schools; Lake Linden-Hubbell Public Schools; Dollar Bay-Tamarack City Area Schools; Hancock Gordon G. Barkell Elementary School and Hancock Middle School; and Houghton Elementary School. Talks are continuing with Adams Township School District and Stanton Township Public Schools.

Laurel Maki said currently 31 Backpacks is getting food from Tadych’s Econo Foods, Pat’s Foods, the Community Action Agency, Walmart and Gordon Food Service in Marquette.

Monetary donations are important for 31 Backpacks, and Laurel maki said a current fundraising effort is taking place at the AmericInn Lodge and Suites in Calumet.

Dianne Peterson, manager of the AmericInn, said the company has a program called AmericInn Cares, and in the Calumet location they are taking donations for 31 Backpacks and the United States Marine Corps’s Toys For Tots.

Donors can pay $2 and get their name displayed in the lobby, or they can make a larger donation and get a free service.

“If you bring in a $5 donation for 31 Backpacks or Toys For Tots, you can swim for free,” she said.

Peterson said she chose 31 Backpacks as one of the charities the business should support after hearing about what they do from some of her staff members.

“I was a little appalled we had that many kids going hungry,” she said.

Peterson said about 40 people have donated to 31 backpacks at the AmericInn since they started just before Halloween. “It’s going good,” she said.

To volunteer or donate to the program contact Melissa Maki,melissamaki19@gmail.com or 231-0694, or Laurel Maki,laurelmaki@charter.net or 231-1472. Make checks payable to 31 Backpacks, Inc.

This article was originally published by Kurt Hauglie fro the Daily Mining Gazette on November 9, 2013.

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Winning Pitch Cleans up at Competition

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Entrepreneurship Club hosts another successful Elevator Pitch Competition.

Today’s university students are reminded to be careful about what they put up on their Facebook or Twitter accounts. Sometimes they forget, and that’s a job for Clean It Up, the winning entry in the fifth annual Bob Mark Elevator Pitch Competition held Thursday night on the campus of Michigan Technological University.

The late business professor Bob Mark created the competition so students could polish their 90-second, new business pitches, emulating the length of an elevator ride.

The brainchild of accounting major Nikoli Wiens, assisted by chemical engineering major Zach Eckert, Clean It Up promises to clean up content and profiles on the Internet, even beyond the cleansing that Facebook and Twitter claim to do upon request.

“Companies will still dig deeper and get the info,” said Wiens. “We know it’s important to remove certain content, and we would do it cheaper than other services.” The team claimed there was more than $1 million in revenue possible with their $25 fee; such is the need for their service.

Their motto? “Don’t let one crazy weekend ruin your life forever.” They won $1,000 for their efforts.

Second place and $500 went to a device to which university students could also relate. FairShare promised a simple plug-in to calculate individual electric power usage, an important consideration for students sharing living spaces and expenses.

FairShare was created by an elevator-pitch veteran, Abhilash Kantamneni, who won last year’s competition with an Indian dating service.

“This can help college students save money,” Kantamneni said. “It would only cost $25, so most can afford it.” Kantamneni is a PhD student in computer science.

The bronze medal and Audience Favorite Award went to the ingenious Flashion, an app for your cellphone that can take a photo of a pair of shoes, for example, and instantly find their source, price, and more.

This mobile app would be free, according to creators Armando Flores, majoring in communication, culture, and media, and Allison Strome, a management major. They credited teammate and finance major Natalia Lebedeva for their inspiration, with whom they will share $250.

“She had the idea and we just built on it,” Flores said. “We might try to get funding on Kickstarter [the online funding site] to form an LLC.

Safety Straw targeted chemicals added surreptitiously to people’s drinks. Green Receipts sought to eliminate paper receipts at businesses. And more student-friendly businesses included Experience University, to help choose the right courses and teachers; and Food Now, to get groceries and fast food delivered to their rooms when they are in mid-cram for that final exam.

Michigan Tech entrepreneurs can also set their sights on the New Venture Competition, held at Central Michigan University in March and providing $65,000 in prize money.

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Bob Mark Elevator Pitch Competition

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All Majors invited to Elevator Pitch Competition!

What is an Elevator Pitch?

An elevator pitch is a short speech that outlines a business idea.

Come Pitch your idea for a chance to win $1000 in 90 seconds!

When: Thursday, November 7th at 6:00 pm

Where: Fisher Hall, Room 135

Why: $1000 First Place Prize…$500 Second Place Prize…$250 Third Place Prize…$200 Audience Favorite

Even if you’re not interested in competing, please join us for what is sure to be a fun and entertaining event! We look forward to see you in the audience!

Please contact Nikoli Wiens with any questions at nrwiens@mtu.edu

www.mtuentrepreneurs.com

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Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Meets with Students

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President Kocherlakota spoke to APMP students about monetary policy and it's ability to influence and prices in the US economy.

Narayana Kocherlakota, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, spoke to students in Michigan Tech’s School of Business and Economics about monetary policy and its ability to influence employment and prices in the US economy.

Kocherlakota’s district is the second largest geographically and least populated, he said, stretching from Montana to the Upper Peninsula. As one of twelve districts, he is part of regular meetings of the Federal Reserve open market committee where Ben Bernanke, chair of the committee and Federal Reserve Board, presides.

The representatives of each Federal Reserve District Bank share information about their districts and eventually produce policy. “It’s pretty structured,” he said “And that’s good; it’s not a debate.”

The Federal Reserve is focused on two main macroeconomic variables in their policy deliberations according to Kocherlakota. Price stability–keeping inflation at 2 percent or lower–and reducing unemployment to at least 6.5 percent. They use the federal funds interest rate as the control variable to achieve these two goals.

The unemployment rate is currently at 7.3 percent, and the federal funds interest rate is targeted at 0.25 percent. He does not see that interest rate changing soon.

Questions from the students and others focused on current strategies, and the recession of 2008 seemed to be part of nearly every answer. Kocherlakota stressed that he was answering for himself, and it was not to be taken as official Federal Reserve Bank responses.

When asked about following commodities like oil and gold, Kocherlakota said the Federal Reserve does follow commodity prices.

“Oil can be seen as putting pressure on inflation,” he said. “And it’s hard to predict oil prices. In 2008, oil prices went sky high the first part of the year, but when they collapsed, as they usually do, inflation came down, too.”

The price of gold went up in 2008, due to people’s fear of what to do with their money, he said.

“The Dow Jones was down to 6,000 then,” he said. “When gold dropped in price recently, it meant people were more confident, less fearful than in 2008.”

Kocherlakota also said that the fed can control the federal funds interest rate, but other rates are based on the demands for goods today versus goods in the future. US Treasury securities are still in demand because of their low risk.

How does the global market inflation affect your decision-making, he was asked.

“It’s another factor for us to think about, that could influence our performance, but we are not like New Zealand where it’s all they think about. The US is a relatively closed economy.”

And does he think about the fiscal health of his own district over that of the US?

“We all provide information about our districts, but we make policy for the country,” he said. “Officially, Kansas City, San Francisco and Minneapolis get one vote to represent all three. We vote on national matters.”

As for his district’s economy?

“It’s doing well, but I don’t think the fed can take credit,” Kocherlakota said. “The Upper Peninsula faces challenges that are historical in nature. Montana and Minnesota have unemployment around 5 percent. North Dakota has the oil boom and is around 3 percent. They can’t find people to work in McDonalds! South Dakota is below 4 percent and a bit of a mystery. The labor market could actually be stronger, the economy could be stronger. There are still some 2008 effects.”

This story was oringally posted in Tech Today by Dennis Walikainen, senior editor, for Michigan Technological University’s University Marketing and Communication.

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