Students participate in national startup fair

The first annual Startup Nation Technology Fair, a technology and innovation trade show that provides college students with the opportunity to explore new startup technology, took place on Wednesday evening in Gilman Hall. Participants could meet innovators behind the latest designs and network for internship placement at these startup companies.

This event was hosted by TAMID at JHU, student-led venture capital A-Level Capital, Alpha Kappa Psi, Center for Leadership Education (CLE), Google at Johns Hopkins and MedHacks. TAMID at JHU works to develop the professional skills of undergraduate students through investment, consulting and general knowledge of the interaction between Israeli and American economies.

A total of 10 startup companies were in attendance, including ReWalk, Consumer Physics, JInternship, Internship Israel, Onward Israel, OrCam, J-Screen, Zeekit, Diggidi and NI-O Toys. These companies are all Israeli-based, but also have operating offices in the United States.

Jeremy Kaner, sophomore, TAMID president and event co-organizer, discussed the companies present.

“Some of the companies in attendance are at the top in their respective fields, with really groundbreaking technologies,” he said. “We’re seeking to connect JHU students with these awesome companies, whether it be through internships, understanding the technology, networking, meeting new people — just really opening up the JHU ecosystem to the entrepreneurial environment with many different business groups across many different industries and companies because about a year or two ago, there was not much going on at Hopkins in the entrepreneurship scene.”

The Startup Nation Technology Fair is a joint effort of Israel Ideas, Hasbara Fellowships and pro-business student organizations intended to showcase Israeli technology and innovation and provide internship opportunities for students with Israeli companies. This semester, the fair is scheduled to take place across 13 different college campuses including George Washington University, American University and Emory University, among others. Hopkins is the penultimate stop for the traveling fair.

“Out of all the campuses we’ve been to, this is one of the best locations,” said Fay Goldstein, Managing Director of Hasbara Fellowships. “I’m very impressed with the turnout — not necessarily only with the numbers, [because] technically we’ve had bigger numbers at other campuses — but more than the numbers, what I’m really impressed with is the caliber of students that are at this event. Everyone really seems to be here for the right reasons. Our specific target audience has shown up to the event, which is very impressive looking in from our end.”

During the fair’s opening ceremony, each company in attendance briefly introduced themselves and their respective startup products.

ReWalk, a company producing wearable robotic exoskeletons powering hip and knee motion to enable individuals with spinal cord injury to stand upright, walk, turn, climb and descend stairs, provided a special demonstration with a guest representative who was a successful customer of their exoskeleton product.

With events like the Startup Nation Technology Fair, Hopkins is taking steps towards furthering innovation and entrepreneurial advancement.

“A lot of what we study at Hopkins, in mechanical engineering at least, is not traditional,” Radhika Rajaram, a master’s student in Mechanical Engineering, said. “Hopkins has really been pioneering the frontiers of technology... People here are, and really want to be, taking the unconventional route. I think that’s why they chose Hopkins.”

Professor Lawrence Aronhime, a senior lecture at the CLE and faculty advisor for this event, commented on the goals of the fair.

“Anything that encourages students to think about life in a startup is a good thing that we should do more of,” he said. “This is in contrast to the more traditional paths that we often encourage undergraduates to take — in the world of big banks, big consulting, big engineering and big medical devices, among others. The more that we can encourage entrepreneurship on campus, the better. With the encouragement and support of the various departments and the senior administration, the entrepreneurial environment at Hopkins will only continue to get better.”

Sophomore Brooks Marshall, who helped organize this event as a TAMID partner, spoke to the growing entrepreneur community on campus. He also explained that the fair tries to bring established startups to campus in order to provide an example of the success student startups can achieve.

“I think a lot of students have ideas that they want to use, a lot of things they want to build — obviously there are a lot of engineers on campus — but maybe people don’t understand the process it takes,” he said.

The fair ended with a Shark Tank-style competition, in which student groups pitched their start-up ideas. The winning team, Touch+, including freshman Brandon Duderstat (presenter), sophomore Mariano Pennini, freshman Matias Eisler and freshman Bijan Varjavand, won a prize compensation of $1,000.

“We came up with this idea at the spring Hackathon at JHU,” Pennini said. “Our product is a cane augmentation device for the visually impaired, which provides feedback to the blind individual in the form of a two-by-five grid of vibration sensors on the user’s wrist. We perform the analysis of objects that are near the person and relay that information according to where it is in their field of view on their wrist.”