Lehigh Student & Faculty Team wins National Award for Entrepreneurial  Innovation
 
 A Lehigh team of three business students and three engineering students and their CBE faculty advisor have won $14000 in a national competition for student entrepreneurs.  The team hopes to use the award to start up  a viable entrepreneurial business based on an invention they developed  and did initial business planning, technical design and testing for this  past spring in Lehigh’s Integrated Product Development Program (IPD).

 This is the sixth year in a row that Lehigh IPD teams have won start up grants from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance,  or NCIIA.  The novel device, which the team calls the S.O.S. System (for Syrup Out Signal), uses optical absorption technology to indicate when  fountain syrup has run out in restaurants and drinking establishments. It eliminates the need for servers to check on syrup levels throughout the day.  Based on extensive field marketing research, the team believes significant market potential comes not only from fountain  establishments, where the system will improve productivity, but also from syrup distributors and manufacturers, who try to differentiate  themselves in the fiercely competitive soda markets through equipment features.  The SOS team, advised by Associate Prof. of Economics Todd A.  Watkins, will use the award money to support further business planning and product testing and refinement.  Already, after showing initial  concept prototypes to regional Coke and Pepsi distributors, they have received endorsements and a tentative statement of willingness to  utilize the product.  The team was also recently featured in the Allentown Morning Call.  The team includes Mittu Chandilya ’02  (Marketing & BIS), Margie de Marcaida ’03 (Industrial Engineering), Michael Grodin ‘04 (Business Information Systems & Marketing), Paul  Kaser ‘03 (Supply Chain Management & Marketing), Tim Llewllyn ’03 (Mechanical Engineering), Holly Thomson ’03 (Mechanical Engineering).
 
 “This extraordinary group has been a delight to work with,” said Prof. Watkins.  “To pull this off, they managed to combine high energy and  creativity with a solid grasp of engineering science, business fundamentals and an uncanny understanding of the marketplace for a group  of undergraduates.  Along the way they truly developed a deep appreciation of the value of multidisciplinary teamwork.”