Testo in lingua originale inglese

Our Enlightening Trip to Virginia Tech

by Danilo Campestrin, Nathaniel Washington III and Mohamed Shihab

 

The Master in International Management (MIM) Business Challenge is the business contest organized by the Faculty of Economics and Management at the University of Trento for smart and business-oriented students of engineering, management, and economics. After competing against more than 20 other students our group of three (later mentioned) won an opportunity to represent the University of Trento and present our business idea at The Virginia Tech (VT) Knowledge Works Global Partnership Student Challenge held in Roanoke, Virginia, USA. There were eight groups of students competing in the VT Student Challenge who came from Austria, Canada, Chile, England, France, Italy, and the USA. The major incentive driving us all was the need to represent our respective institutions and to win the prize monies: the first prize was $25 thousand; the second and third prizes were both $5 thousand. After the weeklong VT Student Challenge we may not have brought home a win, but not only did we survive an earthquake and a hurricane, but we brought back several experiences that will serve us well as young professionals.

Our team consisted of Danilo Campestrin (Italy), Mohamed Shihab (Sweden), and Nathaniel Washington, III (USA). We were all so different and we all worked in different ways but with the time we had we quickly learned to work as a synchronized team. We delegated roles, executed complex tasks, and challenged each other’s ideas and methods of presenting. The business idea that we presented at the VT Student Challenge is an innovation called  “INKEYBOARD”. It is a new type of keyboard that has each of its keys covered with a micro-electronic-ink screen. This permits the keyboard to be fully customizable and able to change each symbol present on the keys while maintaining separated keys and a comfort in typing that a touch-screen keyboard cannot offer. Such a product can be used and configured with any software and for any purpose. The keyboard can be used to: write in different languages, perform gaming operations, reduce errors at the point of sale (POS), enter sensitive medical data, and create comfort in everyday computing tasks allowing for increased productivity. In the office, the INKEYBOARD can be useful for many applications from video editing to perfecting and Excel spreadsheet. We only had ten minutes to give a thirty-minute presentation and “the heat was on”. It was time to rise to the challenge by assessing the information that we had and then cutting it down such that it was understandable and concise.  At the main presentation all of our diligent rehearsing and attention to detail paid off. We gave a coherent and concise presentation that allowed us to feel proud of the job we had done and grateful to the University of Trento for the opportunity.

At the VT Challenge we had also the chance to visit Modea, a marketing firm serving many of The Fortune 500 Companies. In Modea’s headquarters we saw a modern company doing day-to-day business as many young people, sporting casual attire, produced award-winning designs. The Managing Director, Richard Hammer, shared with us many of the company’s best practices as well as sobering professional and personal advice.

We worked long hours on our presentation; however, Virginia Tech did a great job of showing us what it was like to attend an American university with a student body of more than 25 thousand. Being on the VT Campus was strait out of the movies. The green lawns of the campus were sprinkled with large buildings many of which were dormitories and various departments catering to the 125 courses of study offered to the students. There were also members of Greek Fraternities and Sororities, whom we had the opportunity to meet on two social occasions. The school was always bustling as students carried on with their daily lives. Wow, just to imagine life at such a school was almost unthinkable because it is so different from many European schools. We had a great opportunity to appreciate the advantages of studying in the U.S.A. but we find that studying in Europe is still more advantageous.

If we can sum up the entire experience in one word, the word would be progress. In this word we can understand that the world is a place that has evolved to sponsor new student-driven ideas.We would like to thank: The University of Trento, Paolo Collini, Vittorino Filippas, Roberto Napoli, and Simonetta Vezzoso for this enlightening experience. We plan to discuss our findings with the team that will follow us so that they will be best prepared to win the VT Student Challenge next year.