*
On Wednesday, Dec. 11th, Babson College MBA students in the Product Design and Development course will showcase eight new products: five are corporate-sponsored opportunities; three are original student-generated concepts. This year's entries include:
* Mobile mini-projector for laptop computers;* LCD I.D. tag for dogs and cats;* Hands-free, waterproof, digital video camera for scuba diving and other water sports;* Magnet game for six to ten-year olds that educates as well as entertains;* "Air" bicycle seat for riders who need "more" comfort;* Kitchen garbage can that never lets the garbage bag slip off the container;* Natural shampoo with a 100% post-consumer recycled packaging concept; * Multi-functional third seat for mini-vans and SUVs.
Products will be on display at the Babson Product Design Fair from 8 a.m. to noon in the Needham/Wellesley Room, Olin Hall, Babson College. Contact Babson's Office of Public Relations for interviews with students/faculty; images are available.
The 48 students are enrolled in Babson's Product Design and Development course. Teams of students, sometimes together with company sponsors, conceive, design, model, and test each product. They learn how to drive the process of innovation to increase the odds of success in bringing new products to market.
Faculty Director William Stitt says that today's increased competition, at the domestic and international levels, new market niches, and a fast-paced technological environment have raised the bar on new product inventions. "Our students' business and marketing acumen is what sets this product fair apart from the others," says Stitt, "The design must be fantastic, but it must also sensibly make it to the marketplace. The team with a well-planned product and willing to take the risk will succeed in the end."
The course uses Babson's product design and development lab (nicknamed "The Romper Room") and engineering design and shop facilities at the Olin College of Engineering next door. Two students from the new Olin College of Engineering are working with the Babson product teams on an extracurricular basis.
Local product design and development firms including What If Creative, IDEO, PTC, IC3D, and David Kmetz, a consultant and faculty member at Wentworth Institute of Technology offer pro-bono expertise from computer-assisted design to rapid prototyping rounding out the real-life experience of the class.
Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., is recognized internationally as a leader in entrepreneurial management education. Babson grants BS degrees through its innovative undergraduate program (recipient of the 2002 Theodore M. Hesburgh Award). It grants MBA and custom MS and MBA degrees through the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College (currently celebrating 50 years of Babson MBAs). Babson Interactive LLC develops distance learning programs and business simulations for executives and graduate students.
RSS