The Rowan Undergraduate Venture Capital Fund

Program Manager

Anthony J. Marchese, Ph.D.
Department of Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering
Rowan University
Email: marchese@rowan.edu
Telephone: (856) 256-5343

Program Information

The Rowan University Engineering Clinic features a mixture of projects funded by industry and faculty research funding. Clearly, projects such as these are central to developing the design and problem solving skills that are lacking in the typical engineering curriculum. However, these real-world projects sometimes fall short of expectations for the student who enters engineering with the desire to invent, innovate and explore their own technology business opportunities.  One way to promote the entrepreneurial spirit is to provide students with the opportunity to propose their own original enterprises. Accordingly, we have created the Rowan Undergraduate Venture Capital Fund (RUVCF), with funds specifically ear-marked for the development of original products by multidisciplinary student teams within the Junior and Senior Engineering Clinics.  The RUVCF has been generously supported by a series of grants by the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) and the Rowan Family Foundation.

Funding of up to $2500 per team is awarded to student teams based on a competitive proposal process.  To be funded, an E-Team must:

• Write a proposal describing an original product idea and its associated business opportunity
• Show that the idea can be successfully designed and prototyped in a single semester
• Create their own multidisciplinary team
• Enroll in New Venture Development
• Appoint a project director from Engineering and an industry advisor

If approved for funding, the student team is assigned to their own clinic project for the semester.  In addition to the final report, it is expected that the team writes a proposal to the NCIIA for an Advanced E-Team Grant, to continue development of their product and business opportunity.

To date, over $120,000 has been raised and awarded to over 30 student teams, resulting in various startup companies.  The following are examples of products/companies that were initiated from seed funding from the RUVCF:

• ClutchKnobs: Guitar Tuning Device (U.S. Patent 6,703,547)
• ChemoTemp
• SnoRhino (Patent Pending)
• The Helping Hand (Patent Pending)
• Drill Bite
• DigiTails (Patent Pending)
• Eyezon
• Systems of Apollo
• Sport-specific Knee Brace
• Tree-based Web Visualization (Patent Pending)
• Pet Finder

To submit a proposal to have your idea funded from the RUVCF, down the following document: student-rfp.doc.

Proposals are accepted at any time during the year.   Once you have been approved for funding, it is your responsibility to get permission from your discipline manager to work on your project within the Junior/Senior Engineering Clinic.   To date, all students who have been given funding have gotten permission to work on their projects in the Engineering Clinic.

Last updated: September 7, 2006