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EntrepreneurshipEngineeringEntrepreneurshipMinorwww.e-ship.psu.eduThe 18-credit Engineering Entrepreneurship (E-SHIP) minorcombines technology and business to create entrepreneursand innovative leaders. E-SHIP shows students of any majorhow to use their unique skills to become innovators in today’sglobal business climate.E-SHIP students complete the minor with an “entrepreneurialmindset,” meaning they are more creative, better at handlingambiguity, better at teamwork, and see themselves as productleaders much more than when they entered the minor.Students in E-SHIP will start their own in-class businesses.Many pursue these businesses, developing them furtherin other E-SHIP courses. The E-SHIP curriculum and facultyhelp the students understand how to protect and leverageintellectual property, including such tools as patents,trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.E-SHIP also encourages development of intrapreneurial skills.Intrapreneurs use creativity, innovation, and decision-makingskills within existing companies. Many of our intrapreneurialgraduates are known in their organizations for their versatilityand business skills.Some E-SHIP graduates have gone on to start their owncompanies and have sold ideas to existing corporations.To learn about these success stories, please visitwww.e-ship.psu.edu.Innovating theDeveloping WorldSocial entrepreneurship projects implementedin AfricaMashavu and WishVast are two on-going humanitarianengineering and social entrepreneurship projectsoffered through EDGSN 452 Projects inCommunity Service Engineering. These two projects, led byEngineering Design Affiliate Faculty and Senior ResearchAssociate Khanjan Mehta, involve students in hands-onengineering design and entrepreneurship activities in theclassroom and are implemented in Africa during the summer.MashavuMashavu: Networked Health Solutions for the DevelopingWorld is a cell-phone–based system that connects doctors allover the world to patients in developing countries. Mashavustations are located in remote areas with little access to medicalcare and limited transportation. Each station is equipped withbiomedical devices to collect health information such as height,weight, temperature, blood pressure, and lung capacity. Thesedata are then uploaded through the cell phone and laptopsystem onto an online portal where medical volunteers reviewthe information and advise the patients accordingly.In summer 2008, Mashavu had its initial run in Tanzania. PennState students traveled to the Good Hope Orphanage, wherethey—and their Mashavu stations—were well received by thecommunity. The project continued during the 2008-2009academic school year as the Mashavu teamed geared up forsummer 2009.In the spring 2009 offering of the EDSGN 452 course, moreAbove: Mashavu station,Photo: Khanjan MehtaLeft: WishVast system,Photo: Khanjan MehtaOpposite page: Mashavustation reading, Photo:Khanjan Mehtathan 90 students worked on the Mashavu project. Fifteen ofthose students traveled to Kenya for three weeks to test thebiomedical devices in Nyeri, Kenya, located about two hoursoutside of Nairobi.Along with Mehta, two other faculty members traveled toKenya to work on the project: Peter Butler, associate professorof bioengineering, and Margaret Slattery, assistant professor ofbioengineering. Butler, the primary collaborator in the Mashavuproject, had his students work on biomedical devices in class.“We got excellent validation again on everything in Kenya,”said Mehta. “We tested out all of the biomedical devices, whichwas really the focus besides testing the network as a whole.”In 2010, Mashavu plans to collaborate with various entities inKenya, preparing for an eventual handoff to industry. The teamis also very busy fundraising and writing grant proposals.To learn more about the Mashavu project, please visit www.mashavu.com.Milking the RhinoStudents devise innovative solutions inspired by documentaryIn November, Penn State students of all disciplines participatedin the inaugural Milking the Rhino: Innovative SolutionsShowcase. The competition, which required students to submitthree-minute video pitches, was based on Milking the Rhino, anaward-winning documentary that explores how past conservationefforts in Africa have disconnected indigenous people from theirtraditional way of life. A screening of the documentary, presentedby originator and co-producer of the film Jeannie Magill, was heldprior to the showcase.The pitches were rated by an interdisciplinary, five-memberWishVastWishVast: Building Trust and Social Capital Using Cell Phonesis an entrepreneurial venture, also based in Africa, that utilizesthe existing cell phone infrastructure and availability of cellphones—even in rural areas—to help build trust and socialcapital through networking via text message.In most developing countries, incoming text messages are free,while outgoing text messages cost a small fee. The WishVastsystem, which consists of a cell phone strapped to a netbook,is an economic solution that allows for mass text messaging.Similar to the setup of a listserv, a user sends one text messageto the WishVast system, which then sends messages to thoserecipients who choose to use the system. Instead of individuallytext messaging 100 people, each with an outgoing-text fee, onemessage is sent to WishVast and distributed to 100 people—and the sender is only charged for one outgoing text message.With this technology, users can also give ratings, much as onewould to sellers and buyers on eBay. If a person seeking to hiresends a message through WishVast, he or she would be able tosee employment ratings of respondents through the technology.Another way to use WishVast would be to notify others ofcurrent market prices of a good so that sellers can make themost profit.Having tested the WishVast model in summer 2009, the groupof about nine students and Mehta are busy publishing scholarlypapers and recruiting students for the project. Business studentsin Finance Instructor Greg Pierce’s business administrationclass are writing a business plan for the venture, and the team isdetermining how to commercialize it.For more information about the WishVast project, visit http://sites.google.com/site/thewishvastproject.For more information about the Mashavu and WishVast projects,contact Khanjan Mehta at khanjan@psu.edu.expert panel based on the teams'understanding of the context and theproblem; the quality of their solutionwith specific emphasis on innovation,economic sustainability, andpotential for large-scale impact; andthe quality of their video pitch.Pitches may be viewed on YouTube,www.youtube.com, under thesearch terms “Milking the Rhino."Cover: Kartemquin Films30 | SEDTAPP NEwS | SPriNg 2010SPriNg 2010 | SEDTAPP NEwS | 31