It’s dead week, exams are only days away and students are deep in their studies surrounded by textbooks. But Digital Learning Solutions, a student owned company, offers a different approach to studying by using a more time-effective method.

“Our product is aimed to help customers learn quickly and and improve memory retention,” said Jonathan Lee, a senior in electrical and computer engineering, and president of Digital Learning Solutions.

DLS is a student company created by Lee and Rayfield Ogelsby, a senior in computer engineering, for their Senior Design Project class, ECE 480/481. In this class, students are instructed to create a company with a working prototype of a product that they try to market to other companies.

The students in this class are also part of the University’s Engineering Entrepreneurship Program.

Engineering Entrepreneurship Program

Tom Miller created EEP in 1993 to help students use technical skills and teamwork to develop marketable products from their innovation. Miller, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and vice provost for distance education and learning technology applications, originally created the program for the college of engineering. But EEP became a university-wide program in 2002, and since its start more than 300 students have completed EEP.

“The focus of EEP is to educate and train NCSU undergraduates to become leaders of technical industry and keep other students interested in science and engineering,” Miller said.

Miller, along with James Zuiches, vice chancellor for extension, engagement, and economic development, have set many goals for the EEP – one being better funding for the program.

One of the major sources of funding that they hope to receive is the Kauffman Foundation grant, which will help fund a total of 1.5 million dollars over five years. According to Zuiches, this funding would be used extensively to redesign entrepreneurship classes and hire a course coordinator.

“We’re working in silos right now. We’ve got some tremendous programs, we just need someone and some funding to bring them all together in a more organized way,” he said.

From North Carolina alone, Wake Forest and UNC have already received this grant, but NC State is one of eight universities within the UNC system that have applied. Zuiches said that NC State’s application will be under review on December 13th.

The Kauffman Foundation would benefit future students participating in the engineering entrepreneurship program with their design projects. DLS, along with Race KITS, are two student EEP design teams that presented yesterday evening at the December Innovator’s Forum on Centennial Campus.

The Innovator’s Forum, held on the first Monday of every month, is a meeting where students have the opportunity to interact with other local entrepreneurs and receive feedback on their creations.

Digital Learning Solutions “Picture two roommates who are studying. One is at his desk with his head over a textbook, while the other is sitting on his bed playing Nintendo DS. The one playing Nintendo finishes his game and then leaves to go to a club or something, while his roommate is up all night reading,” Lee said.

What Lee described is his debut creation with DLS, called “Total Recall”, a learning program that uses Nintendo’s idea of “Edutainment” to make learning fun and efficient.

“Nintendo was a natural choice for us. Nintendo has tried to appeal to a newer market,” Lee said.

Total Recall works by letting the user create flashcards using Nintendo’s latest hand-held game console, the Nintendo DS. These flashcards can be on any subject that the student chooses and make on-the-go studying easier by holding all of the “flashcards” electronically.

Ogelsby explained that although there are other learning programs such as Leap Frog and SAS, DLS stands out.

“Our style is what makes us different,” said Ogelsby.

DLS includes another type of technology with Total Recall, called Confidence Code, to measure the user’s speed and knowledge when going through each flashcard. When the user repeats the “stack” of cards a second time, the ones that she answered quickly and correctly the first time are now eliminated. This helps the user concentrate on the material that she needs practice with, rather than continuing to reinforce and waste time by repeating already known information.

Lee and Ogelsby said they are unsure about the future of DLS. They say that they have approached businesses with Total Recall and have received very positive feedback, but the decision to keep the company and products going after Senior Design Day has not been made.

“Right now we hope to offer the product as a free download on our website, but we may develop it more in the future,” said Lee.

Race KITS

Rob Taylor began his career as an entrepreneur a year ago when he created GoOffCampus.com, a website that helps students at colleges and universities across the nation find efficient off-campus housing and parking to suit their needs. A year later, Taylor, a senior in Computer Engineering, and Eric Larsen, a senior in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering, make up the administration for Race KITS (Race Kart Information Technology Systems).

Taylor explained that he took a successful, growing market, NASCAR – the second most popular sport in the United States – and invented a product that would help amplify the racing experience for local fans.

“Our purpose is to provide amateur drivers to track or analyze their performance at any given point on the track,” said Taylor.

Larsen said that Race KITS uses web technology to store statistics about the driver’s lap times, speeds, and average times for every race in a database that the driver can access to assess their race performance. He also said that the system uses Radio Frequency Identification to keep fans and management updated with live data feed from the driver’s race position.

Taylor and Larsen explain that although they enjoyed working on the prototype, they do not expect to continue with Race KITS after graduation.

Larsen plans on attending graduate school, while Taylor says he will probably continue his work as a Tech Support Engineer for CISCO Systems while obtaining a graduate degree and possibly an MBA.