Tech Ideas
Please post a brief description of your technology idea that you plan to develop in this class. Also, if you would like to gather other students to your group, you can post your needs here.
There are currently three potential technology ideas on which you can work if you do not have your own technology idea. The ideas include a cell phone application that enables restaurant orders and payment; an enzyme-based swimming pool treatment, and an enzyme-based water treatment. The first idea is being developed by a group of CSOM students. The second two ideas come from an enthusiastic researcher at UMN.
If you would like feedback or help with your technology ideas, including ideas from your idea journal) please post them here.
My idea
Build a $600 HTPC
replace the existing $300 cable box, modem,router
Offer significant infrastructure gains for providers
Offer end customers $1500 worth of electronics for what they pay for their current cable box
I already have a solid idea crafted out, I am looking for 2 other people. Hopefully one CS person to help with the technical side (I am a software Engineer myself) and a business guy that can help us take down Motorola…
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Alex that sounds like a great idea. I’ll talk to you a little more about it in class today, but maybe I could help out on the business end.
-Josh
Customer Interactive Software for Smart Phones
My Idea: Using smart phones as the operating equipment, users use a platform software (which we create and monitor) that could use them to activate and interact with products, for example comparing different TVs in an electronic store. This would enable the customer to access more information, interact more with the products, and receive more prompt and useful assistance. The company could also use the platform as a resource to gather buyer habit information. Big Box stores could use this platform because they are loosing business to lower cost stores and internet sites.
Michael Mueller
muell313@umn.edu
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1. My primary area of technology interest is in mechanical engineering. I spent two and a half years studying to be a mechanical engineer before switching to Carlson. I would love to try the business side of similar technologies.
2. I don’t have any ideas in particular, I just want to work with someone else’s. We’ll see what happens on the first day.
3. I’m primarily hoping to learn about business plan writing, but I’m also very excited about the chance to learn it from a technology perspective. It’ll also be interesting to see which ideas get off the ground and which types of technologies are easier to get funding for.
-Todd
(Admin moved this post/comment because the blog configuration was not set up correctly at first. Sorry for any confusion.)
Hello Class,
Now that you have heard likely ideas from your classmates, you may be able to self select into groups. In case you are undecided or need some group members to work with you, post these on the blog so other can contact you. Also look out for the announcements section where we will remind you about delievrables, readings and guest speakers. We may have a possible guest speaker this week but I will confirm this on Monday.
Treatment to remove Cyanuric acid from commercial swimming pools.
Todd and I are going to pursue Professor Sadowsky’s technology which he presented to the class yesterday.
Hi all,
I have two ideas that I shared one of them in the class. The first idea was using robots as data mules. Wireless sensor networks have a large area of interest, you can see some applications and the wireless sensor device (mote) from this address: http://blog.xbow.com/xblog/telosb/ Since, main problem with these devices is the limited source of energy, we can use robots to collect data which reduces the energy consumption and consequently prolong the life time of the network. We already have a prototype of this system in our laboratory at umn. Currently, we are working on extending this system to outdoor environments.
The second idea is using robots for irrigation systems. This (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Irrigation1.jpg) is the most common system for agricultural irrigation systems. However, it requires a flat surface and it covers only a circular area of the field. We can design a robot which can work on rough surfaces as well as it can cover a field with any arbitrary shape. The other application of this system is the sprinkler irrigation system which most of the people use for their house gardens. The average cost of deploying a sprinkler irrigation system is about $2000-3000. I could not find an expected cost for the agricultural irrigation system but it is certain that those systems are much more costlier than a simple sprinkler system.
Until now I and Ahmed decided to work on this project. I think we would be a stronger group if someone from mechanical engineering background join us to help in designing robots and a management background to help us with planning this business venture.