SDSU Marketing and Communications
BROOKINGS – A business plan developed by four South Dakota State University students (to make single-use biodegradable plastic bags from soybean hulls) has given them the opportunity to advance in an international competition whose next stop It will be Nairobi, Kenya.
SDSU students are among 360 teams that advanced out of the 10,000 teams entered in the Hult Prize global competition, which is considered the Nobel Prize for undergraduates, according to team member Hunter Eide of Gettysburg. Other members are Nicole Schilling, of St. Peter, Minnesota; Kylie Rosenau, of Tierra Azul, Minnesota; and Samuel Hadicek, of Mount Solon, Virginia.
Ultimately, there’s only one prize to win, and it’s a big one: $1 million. But students and their advisors are already amazed at how far they have come in the prestigious competition that went far beyond their normal courses.
“SDSU is in the top 3.6% in the world, and that is truly extraordinary,” said Rebecca Bott-Knutson, dean of the Van D. and Barbara B. Fishback Honors College. The contest annually attracts more than 100,000 young people from more than 100 countries.
“It’s very exciting” to have moved forward, Eide said. In the next round, SDSU students will be among 40 teams presenting their business proposal at a summit in Nairobi from June 7 to 9. This is one of nine cities in the world where students will compete.
It began with The Challenge of Justice
The students took on the project while participating in The Justice Challenge, a year-long national honors experience designed to empower participants with skills to address the world’s wickedest problems using systems thinking.
The initiative, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, was led by Fishback Honors College and SDSU with help from 13 additional partner universities. The inaugural year, which focused on food justice, featured one hundred participants from more than 20 universities.
The Hult Prize international competition was one of other opportunities that students could take advantage of to further leverage their new skills. Two teams were formed from The Justice Challenge: one from SDSU and one from the University of Louisville.
The SDSU students, graduating seniors Eide and Schilling, and incoming juniors Rosenau and incoming senior Hadacek, focused their Hult Prize work on their shared appreciation for agriculture.
Beyond the classroom
The SDSU students will be joined in Kenya by Srinivas Janaswamy, associate professor of dairy and food sciences, as well as agronomy, horticulture and plant sciences. He serves on the advisory board of the students’ proposed company, Agri-Cycle Innovations, and is the source of the product the students envision producing.
Agri-Cycle Innovations’ main product is a biodegradable, non-toxic, single-use plastic, made from inedible parts of soybean plants instead of petroleum, which takes years to decompose. Janaswamy said, “We are creating value addition by recycling bio-waste. “I was impressed when students contacted me to develop their project based on my research.”
Bott-Knutson said the students’ efforts went far beyond their Justice Challenge online courses, which some took for credit and others as a co-curricular activity. Students continued to meet and delve into more complex topics.
“It is very rare and very exciting to see a group of students go further in this way. …That’s part of the real magic behind this group of students. “They are very tenacious and deeply motivated to understand the world around them and figure out how to make a positive impact on some of our biggest challenges,” she said.
Implemented business plan
Janaswamy is advancing the scientific research behind the business plan and has created a patent-pending process that extracts cellulose from the hulls and adds a solvent to give the cellulose film the same strength as petroleum-based bags.
While he continues to focus on technology research and development, budding entrepreneurs are creating a successful business concept, one that would take advantage of the $1 million grand prize and venture capital.
Your first step would be to market in local stores that take a sustainability approach and then expand to regional outlets.
They project to break even in the second year, since their main input, soybean hulls, is low cost and available in abundance, Schilling said.
short presentation
At the Nairobi summit, students will have four minutes to make their presentation. There is then a two-minute question and answer session and two minutes for comments from the judges. Eight teams will be chosen for an expanded presentation in Nairobi and a winner will be chosen.
“To be successful, the team must present a compelling proposal for their idea in four minutes or less. This requires teamwork, planning and surgical precision in the use of every second,” said Bott-Knutson.
The winning team from each summit along with three other startups selected through the Second Chance Round will earn a spot in the Global Accelerator. Those 12 semi-finalists will connect with Hult Prize mentors and curricula to refine their proposals and further develop their businesses. In August they will travel to London to spend two weeks working and learning with world-class experts and coaches.
From that stage, six teams will be chosen to participate in the million-dollar final.
SDSU first team since 2011
This is the 15th year of the Hult competition and the first year SDSU has competed since 2011, Eide said. The students formed their competition corporation, Agri-Cycle Innovations, in November. Their proposal was presented in February and they learned of its success in mid-April.
Eide noted that previous Hult Prize winners have come from Ivy League schools, which can be intimidating, but “our success is a testament to what SDSU can do for its students.”
Part of that support is providing travel funds for students through the SDSU Foundation, Fishback Honors College and the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences.
Students have been guided by a faculty advisory team that includes Barb Heller (entrepreneurship), Bott-Knutson and Janaswamy. Industry advisory members are Kyle Bender, Falcon Plastics and Dawn Nagel, a Gettysburg farmer.
“We’re excited to make everyone proud in the next round,” Schilling said.
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