Local Red Bull event offers entrepreneurship workshops, medical technology lectures and networking opportunities for students in the region, encourages applications for the international business entrepreneurship challenge

Anika Seth

01:01 am, October 14, 2021

Contributing journalist

Anika Seth, collaborating photographer

On October 13, Red Bull Basement, a global innovation competition for students aged 18 and over, hosted an event called “Innovate New Haven” at the Cowork District at 470 James St.

The New Haven event focused primarily on the medical technology industry. The programming included entrepreneurship workshops and a lecture series with two keynote speakers: Mostafa Analoui, executive director of UConn Venture Development, and Ted Dinsmore, president of technology company SphereGen.

“There is a misconception that entrepreneurship means a start-up,” Analoui said during his speech. “Entrepreneurship is a way of thinking and solving problems… You can be an entrepreneur running a business or an entrepreneur running a small store. “

Red Bull Basement is an international competition that aims to encourage students to develop “innovative, technology-driven ideas” that would have a positive impact on the world, according to marketing materials. One idea per country will be assigned a ‘fully customized mentoring program’, which includes sufficient funding to develop and implement the proposed idea.

Nick Heymann ’24, student responsible for the Red Bull brand at Yale, explained that the annual program is open to students from all over the world and encourages submissions at all levels of the design process, not just fully developed ideas.

Red Bull offered its New Haven event in partnership with Intel Next Unit of Computing and information technology company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone. More than 40 employees, interested community members and local students, including those from Yale, attended the three-hour session.

During his lecture, Dinsmore offered a live demonstration of his work applying mixed reality technology to medical diagnostic systems. He explained that advanced three-dimensional viewing tools like his can help reduce the time healthcare professionals spend looking at scans and increase their diagnostic efficiency and accuracy.

Dinsmore also offered experience-based advice to budding entrepreneurs in the audience: “While that may seem counterintuitive,” he said, “don’t go asking for money until you get started. have a product and some buy-in to your product. “

Following the Disnmore and Analoui lectures, attendees had the opportunity to ask questions of the entrepreneurs in attendance and interact with each other in a designated networking period.

Among those attending the evening was Stella Gray ’24, a member of the Yale Entrepreneurial Society.

“As an entrepreneur myself, I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn from successful innovators as they share their tips and advice,” Gray wrote in a text to The News. “A dynamic, successful and creative company like Red Bull has the ability to help students reach their full potential. “

The overall competition calendar runs from September 1 to December 15 and includes six elements: entries, community acknowledgments, idea selection, idea development, a conference for the global finalists, and a final pitch.

The application window is open until October 24, with students able to apply individually or in pairs. The app includes a paragraph describing their idea and a 30-60 second video explaining the concept in more depth.

During the application window, community members can comment on existing submissions. These screams, as the Red Bull Basement website calls them, are only visible to the students receiving each comment, not the general public. At the end of the application period, however, the competition will publish the total number of acknowledgments received by each group, and these actions will be taken into account as part of the selection process.

In addition to the total number of reviews, local judges will also rate each idea for feasibility, impact and creativity when selecting finalists. The selection process is expected to end on November 2.

Finalists then have until December 2 to flesh out and implement their ideas, with access to resources provided by Red Bull Basement, such as a workspace, one-on-one mentoring and global networking opportunities.

After the development period, students participate in the World Finals: a series of workshops and three-day mentoring sessions, among other programs. The World Final ends with teams presenting their work to an international panel of judges during the final pitch, after which one team will receive the title of Global Winner 2021.

Red Bull Basement has been organizing this competition since 2018.