PitchFest 2009 Spotlights Entrepreneurs

The culture of entrepreneurship, while still young at Columbia SEAS, is off to an impressive start. Nearly 200 spectators witnessed 41 enthusiastic entrepreneurs take 90 seconds each to “pitch” their ideas for new products at PitchFest, sponsored by the School, the Center for Technology, Innovation and Community Engagement (CTICE), and the Society for Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation, a student group.

 

In these times of economic uncertainty, entrepreneurship has emerged as a strong option to produce jobs and promote growth,” says Rebecca Rodriguez, senior associate director for entrepreneurship at CTICE. “It is the perfect vehicle to attract our students because it supports curiosity and intellect and the recognition that individuals can produce amazing things.”  

 

SEAS students were inclined to develop technical products, often computer-based, such as real-time translation software for 18 different languages proposed by Fred Rassam MS ’08 and a searchable-by-sound musical database proposed by Michael Mandel MS ’06, PhD ’09. Meena George ’03, PhD ’08 GSAS, now a student at the Medical School, pitched an online computer software program that will provide research laboratories with a way to minimize waste of laboratory reagents by creating a secondary market.

 

One new design that received hearty endorsement from the audience was Business School student Jennifer Wright’s environmentally-friendly pizza box made from 100% recycled materials that breaks down into serving plates and a convenient storage container for the left-overs.

 

“Our first PitchFest demonstrated the depth and range of Columbia’s brightest entrepreneurial minds. And our future events should be even more exciting,” says Rodriguez. “There’s really no limit to where they can take these ideas.”