A look at some of the student ventures being presented at Founders Day

By: Megan Davis

Founders Day comes back to the Toaster Innovation Hub once again on Wednesday, May 14, bringing with it a showcase of innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship from University of Minnesota (UMN) students.

The Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship partners with the Libraries to support the event. The annual event is the final event of the semester held at the Toaster to promote and celebrate student entrepreneurship.

The MVP Challenge or Minimum Viable Product Challenge is a way for UMN students to develop a variety of business ideas.

For students, the challenge provides the opportunity to practice their entrepreneurship and business skills with the help of a faculty advisor throughout the semester.

Students worked intensely on their projects and as the semester wraps, Founders Day provides a fantastic opportunity to celebrate all the hard work these students put in.

The projects include a sulfide water filtration system, a carbon offset calculator, a plan to change crop disease diagnosis, a counseling chatbot and more. These student-led projects represent a diverse range of disciplines and showcase the creativity and innovation thriving within the university.

Austin Konrath worked in collaboration with Dr. Nathan Johnson, a UMN Dultuh professor with a focus in environmental engineering, to create SulfStream.

“Current treatment options to remove hydrogen sulfide are expensive, difficult to implement, and limited in the concentrations of hydrogen sulfide that they can treat,” Konrath said.

Konrath aims to ease that problem and tackle a pressing environmental challenge saying their plans are “designed for our planet.”

Konrath is not the only student with a desire to innovate something that helps the environment. Graduate robotics students worked together to create OmniAgrobot, the quadruped robot that addresses a new way for crop disease diagnosis and pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in agricultural robots.

Under the guidance of Dr. Ce Yang, students Abhishek Chaudhari, Mahendra Vishnu Madhavan, David Aviles and Swapnil Puranik have been evolving their agricultural robot since September 2022.

“Our team’s work spans ROS 2-based locomotion control, sensor fusion, and deep learning driven plant disease detection, bridging robotics and precision agriculture,” Madhavan said.

Another notable project addressing the environment is Atmospherix, a carbon offset calculator presented by Aleksei Rosanov.

Rosanov is currently working to obtain a Masters of Geographic Information Science. His project, Atmospherix, wants to create an online service for providing assessments of carbon offsets using machine learning models, satellite imagery and ground observations.

Accessibility is a common theme among students. Many want to bridge the information gap. Sultan Koroso and Veeraj Chimanpure put together a chatbot to do just that.

Mentora, is an AI chatbot that aims to make advising a more accessible and personalized experience for students.

While the university provides academic advising to students, Mentora wants to fill the gaps that traditional advising can not, such as providing 24/7 service.

“This idea came from personal experience,” Chimanpure said. “I’ve faced delays due to advisor unavailability and received inconsistent or conflicting advice. I’ve heard similar frustrations from many of my friends.”

These are just a few glimpses of the presentations that will be heard at the Toaster on Wednesday from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., there will be 25 total projects showcased!

Prototypes will feature ideas to resolve significant social, health, environmental, and manufacturing problems.

As Founders Day approaches, the Toaster will provide a space for anyone to hear these presentations and celebrate the achievements of these students. The MVP Challenge can be a fantastic way for students to launch and begin advancing their ideas.

The challenge awards up to 25 grants every year ranging from $300 to $3000. Applications are available to all students in the fall.