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It\u2019s not often that the public, private and non-profit sectors come together to advance an initiative. Similarly, it is not often that students from different academic disciplines team up to take on a social challenge.<\/p>\n
But that is exactly what happened at Florida International University on May 4, when the College of Business, Junior Achievement (JA) Americas and the Miami-based software company SAP joined up for the first JA Innovation Camp 2016 in South Florida, held on the Modesto A. Maidique Campus. Engineering students, those studying accounting, hospitality majors and others from across FIU schools and colleges all came together, said Carlos M. Parra, who serves as clinical professor in the Information Systems and Business Analytics Department and in the Marketing Department. The purpose: to \u201cfind innovative business solutions to a social problem using technology,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
JA Americas\u2019 president, Leo Martellotto, knew Parra from his time at Citibank, where he served as head of Community Development in Latin America. JA Americas reached out to Parra to make the innovation camp part of their first co creating meeting with SAP, held this year in Miami.<\/p>\n
The aim, said Parra, was to give students a hands-on experience, and for JA and SAP, which sponsor camps throughout Latin America, to see how U.S. students take on the challenge in the morning-long pilot project. The group seeks to replicate the initiative in other parts of Latin America, including Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Peru, as well as in Canada and the Caribbean.<\/p>\n
\u201cFIU is one of the largest universities in the state, and FIU believes in entrepreneurial education as a way to inspire youth,\u201d said Hernan Zocco, a spokesman for JA Americas. It\u2019s not the first collaboration between the organization and FIU, he said, adding that last year, the group organized its first Partners\u00b4 Cocktail at FIU Downtown on Brickell, in which FIU Trustee Gerald Grant (a JA trainee) participated.<\/p>\n
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Students take on the challenge.<\/em><\/p>\n Even though it was late in the semester and during exam week, 15 students came to the morning event. Four multidisciplinary teams were formed. On the winning team: Camila Ceballos,\u00a0international business and supply chain management major, Samer Saad, a mechanical engineering student, and Qianran Dai, hospitality and tourism management major.<\/p>\n \u201cJA innovation camp was an amazing experience,\u201d Ceballos said. \u201cI was a bit scared because I had never done an event like it and I didn’t know anyone — but I loved that they made the groups multidisciplinary and mine was even multicultural. My team members were Chinese and Egyptian, and I’m Argentinean, so that was super cool.\u201d<\/p>\n Their winning app idea is designed to work with cell phone messenger services and relays a \u201cdriving\u201d alert when the person being called or texted is behind the wheel. The driver could then return the call or text later, relieved from the anxiety of immediately answering the caller \u2013 be they boss, child or spouse.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a consensus on our topic, the text and driving issue. This is a very specific and clear topic, and it also drives big trouble,\u201d said Dai, who said they worked like it was something they would actually bring to market. \u201cThe result was a big surprise, since we know every other team is also very creative.\u201d<\/p>\n Saad has long been interested in using technology to solve social issues. \u201cWe wanted a creative solution for texting and driving that is both simple and would merge with a user\u2019s lifestyle without forcing anything on them,\u201d he said. \u201cOut of this experience I learned that combining minds can result in something much more dynamic than what a single mind can solely achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n Winning team members got iPads. And SAP offered a paid internship to one of the event\u2019s participating students.<\/p>\n The organizers learned something too. \u201cThe students did a great job during the challenge,\u201d said Zocco. \u201cThough they had just two hours to create a solution, they came up with creative and sustainable ideas. They truly represent the entrepreneurial spirit that we try to transmit.\u201d<\/p>\n