"I am Dani. I am from Spain. And I am a reasonably good lover." I thought that would get your attention. It also caught the attention of attendees of this week’s Blast Furnace, the student accelerator at the University of Pittsburgh. It was ‘Alumni Night’ at the Furnace. However the opinions expressed, and the experiences shared, were so much more. First up, Dani Garcia.
This week the University of Pittsburgh launched its new student accelerator dubbed The Blast Furnace (a tip of the hat to Pittsburgh’s steel making history) of which I am its director. A blast furnace, according to that great oracle of all knowledge(!), Wikipedia, is a “type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron, but also others such as lead or copper. Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a base metal from its ore.”
The Randall Family Big Idea competition is our flagship competition here at the Innovation Institute, the main reason we're so proud of it: the students. So we wanted to take the chance to share with you some of their thoughts on the competition: Dirt Cheap Power, Addy Klonicki
As an intern at the University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute, I consider myself one of the luckiest people at the university. My job allows me to see all of the amazing and inspiring ideas that arise from Pitt students, from undergraduates to post-docs. However, no event showcases our school’s indisputable capacity to change the world like the Randall Family Big Idea Competition. The second round of this annual Pitt competition, which took place Thursday, March 5, involved more than 85 student teams -- nearly double the size of last year’s competition. The teams pitched their hearts out with the hope of advancing their “big ideas” to the final round. I had the unique pleasure of experiencing the competition from the vantage point of the judges’ table.
The University of Pittsburgh’s Innovation Institute and the Career Development and Placement Assistance office hosted Zev Siegl, co-founder of Starbucks and renowned entrepreneur. Zev narrated the humble beginnings of what is now one of largest and most recognizable brands in America. It was an incredible learning experience for the almost 200 students in the room. So you too can learn from Zev’s wisdom, here are the key takeaways that I learned from the event: