UL students get taste of entrepreneurship

As appeared in The Daily Advertiser, April 20, 2014.

A few University of Louisiana at Lafayette students are doing more than just learning. They're devoting their spare time to creating video games, custom instruments, hair accessories, designer handbags, finger-fitted bike handles and more.

Students from all disciplines are able to share and grow ideas through the UL College of Business' new Acceleragin program. It's part of a partnership with the Lafayette Economic Development Authority business incubator, the Opportunity Machine, and it's helping students turn ideas into reality.

"We're doing this because we need to do it," said the college's dean, Joby John. "We should offer students opportunities to help them start their own businesses."

For Silvana Zaldivar, a junior studying industrial design at UL, a school project has turned into a marketable product.

Her company, Silvana Zaldivar Handbags, offers unique, handmade purses that support local workers from her native country, El Salvador.

"I started this as a second-year project," Zaldivar said. "And everybody really liked it, so I talked to a designer in New Orleans, did some research back at home and decided to go after it."

The all-natural leather totes can be folded into versatile designs depending on the occasion. Currently, she is selling the bags for $300 a piece.

Zaldivar has already sold 10 bags, and her next step is to create a website and market to boutique stores.

"Right now, I'm studying so I can't be on top of things," Zaldivar said. "I'm a designer and a perfectionist, so that's hard."

This summer, Zaldivar will be interning at Fossil, a designer that manufactures purses, bags and other products, to learn even more about the handbag industry.

Video games are a passion for Nicholas Laborde, a junior studying management at UL, but doing the coding required to design video games is out of the question.

That hasn't stopped him from connecting with coders to create the ultimate virtual-reality video game, Close Order.

"It's incredibly exciting following your dreams," Laborde said. "It's something I've always believed is important as long as you work hard."

The game, which involves space missions, will require use of a virtual-reality headset made for 3D gaming.

Close Order is about halfway completed. All of the mechanics are finished, but the content and details of each level are still being designed by Laborde.

To learn the technical parts of creating games, Laborde turned to Google.

"It's all about fitting the puzzle together," Laborde said. "I make the best ideas come to life."

The team hopes to launch the game by the end of the summer through the digital game store Steam.

"We have very big ideas," Laborde said. "And we think we'll be able to deliver an experience that can't be replicated. And hopefully — if they don't hate it — we'll make some money in the process."

A binder clip used as a makeshift hair clip during class gave Jessica Hebert, a senior architecture student at UL, the idea to create pretty and functional hair accessories.

Her product, FlipClips, utilizes the same basic concept of a binder clip — bringing objects together with two fold-over handles.

FlipClips are still in the prototype phase, but Hebert is currently wearing her butterfly and firefly models.

She plans to create ladybugs and roses next, and she has designed a magnetized, leaf-shaped wall mount for the clips to attach to.

"It's not only a functional piece, but it's a beautiful form that has functionality," Hebert said.

FlipClips will be sold for about $25 each, Hebert said. Accessories to change the clip's shape will be available for purchase after the initial base cost.

Hebert calls the clips a tribute to the plastic butterfly clips of her youth. She wants hers to have a similar sense of nostalgia for others but to be of better quality, since the plastic butterfly clips she once wore consisted of many pieces that often broke.

"These could become heirloom-quality pieces," Hebert said. "They're of high quality and are long-lasting."

Senior industrial design UL student Jarrod Dufour is a bicyclist who didn't know he needed the product he created until he found the substance that could create it.

"I found the material, and that just gave me the idea," Dufour said. "I think innovation is fun."

Love Handles are at-home, customizable bike grips made from thermoplastic that can be molded and re-molded to fit different hand sizes in a similar way that mouth grips are molded.

The product is perfect for children, Dufour says, because the grips can be reheated many times to fit growing hands.

Dufour found himself biking often as a student and wanted more comfort during his commute.

"I just fell into a biking community," Dufour said. "And once I developed the grip, it just felt natural."

The product is still in the prototype phase because Dufour hasn't reached the quality and look he is hoping to achieve.

Seeing the excitement on bicycle shop owners' faces when he shows them his product makes it all worthwhile, he said.

"These are people who have been riding for 20-plus years," Dufour said. "And to see the excitement on their faces is what keeps me going. That's cool."

Matthew Amy, an engineering graduate student at UL, paired two of his passions to create custom instruments through 3D printing.

His company, Elements Instruments, recently began printing customized instrument parts and will soon begin selling products.

"I love engineering, and I love music," Amy said. "This is my way of combining the two."

Amy is a drummer, guitarist, saxophonist and singer who says there hasn't been a major shift in the way instruments are crafted in decades.

The 3D printing method works through layering materials into shapes developed in a 3D digital model. It is less wasteful than traditional techniques, which rely on removing materials through cutting instead of adding materials.

The 3D printing technique allows the use of many materials, including metals, plastics, clay, porcelain, wood and more. Amy is currently printing drum accessories using carbon fiber.

"Carbon fiber instruments have no flaws, but you can actually engineer in flaws into your instruments to get acoustical qualities," Amy said. "And that way, you don't have to listen to instrument after instrument to get the sound you want."

Traditional customized instruments can be costly, but Amy plans to price his custom-designed instruments somewhere in the middle.

A kick drum, for example, typically runs between $200 and $1,300. Amy says his would cost between $600 and $700.

"I want my instruments to be personalized to what the musicians need," Amy said. "I want them to be inspired by their instrument and for them to last."