This past Wednesday, the annual DIGITECH conference gave students a chance to show off their start ups and tech projects.
This past week in the Turnbull Conference Center, Florida State held its very own DIGITECH 2015 — the conference of the year for young entrepreneurs and innovators of Tallahassee. Sponsored by PIC (the program for interdisciplinary computing headed by Ken Baldauf) students at DIGITECH exhibit their innovations; products, robots, apps, clubs, and tech start-ups to a crowd of FSU students and faculty as well as local tech gurus and investors.
This past week in the Turnbull Conference Center, Florida State held its very own DIGITECH 2015 — the conference of the year for young entrepreneurs and innovators of Tallahassee. Sponsored by PIC (the program for interdisciplinary computing headed by Ken Baldauf) students at DIGITECH exhibit their innovations; products, robots, apps, clubs, and tech start-ups to a crowd of FSU students and faculty as well as local tech gurus and investors.
The Convention Floor
DIGITECH gave students the opportunity to exhibit their projects and start ups on the floor as well as hear from keynote speakers on technology, participate in a business competition based off the show Shark Tank, and compete for awards for their original ideas. Among the featured exhibits this year were 3D-printed textiles for clothing, three-dimensional works of art as well as websites and apps that aim to make life a little more convenient. DIGITECH featured everything from an app that helps you split your gas money to an app that let’s you know when your car is being towed. Another app in development combines several of the food apps we know and love like Urbanspoon and Fridge Pal into one convenient place. Titled Skool Skillet, the app will be able to tell users what their fridge inventory is like, what recipes they can use for the ingredients they currently have and also recommend local restaurants that have the specific dish if the user doesn’t feel like cooking. With the LESS app based out of Tallahassee, users can monitor their energy spending on a weekly and even daily basis. The app helps its users learn how to better conserve natural resources and save money at the same time. One website featured at DIGITECH uses technology to preserve history. With the use of QR codes at each landmark within one of Pensacola’s historical gravesites, users will be able to scan codes and view information about each site and receive a guided walking tour from their mobile device, instead of having to walk back through this large cemetery to see its entrance map. DIGITECH made it clear that Florida State University has a lot of talented students seriously invested in tech and entrepreneurship. After the floor closed at around five pm everyone moved to the presentation hall to listen to the DIGITECH 2015 keynote speaker, and hear the announcement of the conference winners and awards. |
Keynote Speaker Cecily Sommers
DIGITECH 2015’s keynote speaker was Cecily Sommers, global trends analyst and author of Think Like a Futurist. Her presentation combined her personal story in going from a professional ballerina to a doctor to a future thinker -with a summary of her principles of change and evolution in the world of technology. Sommers stressed that “futurism is a basic literacy.” In order for change to be realized, everyone needs to think forward and be future minded. “How we conceive of the future is everything” she stated in a call to action for future-thinkers in the tech world, adding that “there is no future” other than in our imaginations. She spoke about how new technologies have brought manufacturing and service sectors back the individual. 3D printing gives the power to anyone to manufacture parts with precision. Apps like Uber and AirBnB empower individuals to provide services previously only available to taxis and hotels. Sommers moved on to talk of how the world economy is currently changing, and how that change will continue to propagate in the next decades do to rapid advances in computers, mobile devices, and the internet. |
Cecily provides consultation services to companies and corporations about future thinking and change. She says that the biggest difficulty and dilemma in fostering long term adaptation is “failure to commit to change.” Corporations who, due to fear of risk or stubbornness, end up not following through with change, end up not being able to adapt to a changing world.
For more about Cecily Sommers, visit her website here.
For more about Cecily Sommers, visit her website here.
The Award Winners
After the keynote speaker, the winners of the DIGITECH awards were announced. Judged by a panel of tech buffs from around Tallahassee, including faculty members Richard Urban and Geo Miller as well as Domi Ventures' Lucas Lindsey. The campus choice award was voted on by Digitech visitors who voted for their favorites via text. The winners each received one of five separate awards: |
Award for Innovation: AGROSKY Autonomous Robots for Agriculture, Agrosky is a start up focused on bringing technology and innovation to agriculture and empowering local small-scale farmers with robotics. AGROSKY uses an open source program for automated drones that assists farmers to do more work with less people. Charles Wilson, Senior in International Affairs and Entrepreneurship James Dilmore, Junior in Accounting |
Award for Expression: Entropy An interactive tech/art project pictured here on the right. The glowing orb is an “Icosidodecahedron - an Archimedean solid with 30 identical vertices and 60 identical edges”. The shape is meant to model atom at rest. Entropy used motion sensors connected to a Raspberry Pie processor to makes the device react to people around it. Noah Brock, Graduate in Studio Art |
Award for Contribution: “Smart Thinker” - Developing Serious Games to Promote Cognitive Abilities among the Elderly. This start-up is focused on bringing cognition enhancing games and apps to senior citizens. These “brain games” are meant to improve “brain speed,” memory, and attention. Edward Agama, FAMU Graduate |
Award for Entrepreneurship: Fare A mobile application for splitting up gas money. Fare calculates the cost in gas of road trips and commutes and makes it easy for friends to pay each other. Users can earn miles by using the app frequently. Fare currently exists in beta form and is open for signup. Matt Barr, Senior in Computer Science Sabrina Ariza, Junior in Computational Biology |
Campus Choice Award: Chronos Web Series Created by FSU film students, Chronos is a sci-fi anthology about “time storms,” time travel incidents that occur as natural disasters. It features props made using a 3D printer, and is highly anticipated around campus The series will premiere April 30th at 7pm in the ASLC. |
Reshmie Punwasi, Senior in Studio Art
Charles Levy, Junior in Advertising
Mariana Alves, Junior in Media Communication Studies
Leyla Erkan, Senior in Media Communications Studies
Andrea Nieto, Sophomore in Digital Media Production
Sabrina Torres, Senior in Graphic Design and Advertising
Sophie Navarez, Junior in Public Relations
Nicholas Rivers, Senior in Studio Art
Charles Levy, Junior in Advertising
Mariana Alves, Junior in Media Communication Studies
Leyla Erkan, Senior in Media Communications Studies
Andrea Nieto, Sophomore in Digital Media Production
Sabrina Torres, Senior in Graphic Design and Advertising
Sophie Navarez, Junior in Public Relations
Nicholas Rivers, Senior in Studio Art
FSU Shark Tank Winner: DivvyUp Socks FSU Shark Tank Winner: DivvyUp Socks; The winner of the FSU Sharktank won $500 for their business. DivvyUp Socks is a charitable start up that sells socks to U.S. consumers and then donates socks to local homeless shelters with every sale. They have donated 2387 pairs of socks so far. |
Overall, Digitech showed off some impressive student businesses, promoted technology and entrepreneurship at FSU, and proved that FSU is a tech-friendly University.
Sponsors of DIGITECH 2015 include Domi Ventures, The Jim Moran Institute, PIC, and more.
For more about Digitech and these great projects, visit digitech.fsu.edu.
-Nicholas Farrell and Lauren Spaunburgh
Sponsors of DIGITECH 2015 include Domi Ventures, The Jim Moran Institute, PIC, and more.
For more about Digitech and these great projects, visit digitech.fsu.edu.
-Nicholas Farrell and Lauren Spaunburgh