BENNETT & SMITH
In the first, he did a project, along with Matt Smith, to determine the market viability of a device called MicroGonioPhotometer. Invented by Dr. Jon Arney, Associate Professor at the Center for Imaging Science at RIT, the MicoGonioPhotometer is, in effect, a gloss meter that measures the relative "shininess" of an object.
In the second, he worked with Corey Mack, an RIT engineering student and inventor. The scope of this project was to determine the business direction of Corey's ideas and to establish if Corey's ideas are in fact "opportunities" that could be commercialized.
According to Mr. Bennett, "the Center for Entrepreneurship is a great place to create synergies across disciplines. First of all, creative inventors are given help, (for free), from people with expertise in different aspects of business. Second, business students are given a place to gain "real world" experience, work with someone from other fields, and to implement their class-learned knowledge in real situations."
He continued, "another great thing about this work is that businesses can be "worked on" at any stage of development. Some projects come in that are in the very early stages that are just ideas. Our job is to help them determine what businesses can come out of those ideas and if they represent an opportunity for a viable business. Other projects can be for businesses that know what they want to do and maybe even how to do it, but don't have the business side of the equation. We can help them write an actual business plan or do marketing research."