Talking Stick - March/April 2009 - 9

Menu Favorites serve a new PurPose NINg gREE uSES p cAM StartupNation Announces Student Winners ACUHO-I member Digital Wingman, Inc. was announced as one of the winners in the 2008 StartupNation Dorm-Based 20 Competition. The May + June 2008 issue of Talking Stick first reported on the competition, which is a contest for college and university students with business Web sites. Some students may have hatched their million dollar idea while living in their residence hall, but this was not a requirement. The contestants’ Web sites were judged on innovativeness of business concept, potential for growth, cutting-edge business practices, potential for overall impact, and financial performance. Digital Wingman, created by Brian Rider, now a junior at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, provides 3-D models of residence hall rooms that can be included on college and university Web sites. A total of 18 schools have signed up to include these models on their pages, allowing students to decorate their room before they even move in. Young college entrepreneurs are gearing up to be contestants for the 2009 competition. Winners will be named one of America’s top 20 college-based businesses for 2009, as well as receiving national publicity in the media and a Winners Emblem that they can put on their business Web site and e-mails. To learn more about other 2008 StartupNation winners and to enter the 2009 StartupNation Dorm-Based 20 Competition, visit www.startupnation. com/dorm. T he new trend on college and university campuses is using the leftover cooking oil from french fries and onion rings for a higher purpose. The oil is being converted into biodiesel, an alternative fuel produced from renewable oilseed crops, such as canola or soybean, or from used vegetable oil and other fats. Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, generates two batches of biodiesel a week. As of December 2008, they had produced about 100 gallons, saving the school $150. They use the fuel to power vehicles such as tractors and leaf blowers. At the State University of New York, biodiesel accounts for about 8 percent of the fuel used on campus. SUNY’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry even melted down a 900-pound butter sculpture from the state fair to help power its vehicles. At the University of Kansas in Lawrence, biodiesel fuels are used not only to run lawn mowers, backhoes, front-end loaders, and other construction equipment but also as a solvent to clean parts and tools and to heat a motor-pool building. Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, produces 50 to 150 gallons of biodiesel each week to power campus lawn mowers, a garbage truck, and farm equipment. The school has more than doubled its capacity of biodiesel, growing from 20gallon to 54-gallon batches. Biodiesel byproducts are being used in a composting research project at the school’s organic farm and to make soap to sell in the campus bookstore. Biodiesel is created by chemically converting cooking oil in a process called transesterification, which removes glycerine and adds methanol, leaving a thinner product that can power a diesel engine. Biodiesel can also be blended with petroleum diesel. This process is quickly becoming part of the green movement that’s sweeping campuses. The National Association of College & University Food Services asked on their discussion board what dining halls were doing with their fryer oil waste, and the majority of schools said they were either using the oil to make biodiesel or selling it to companies for that purpose. Estimated U.S. sales of biodiesel have increased from 75 million gallons in 2005 to 700 million gallons in 2008. To learn more about biodiesel, visit the National Biodiesel Board Web site at www.biodiesel.org. March + april 2009

http://www.startupnation.com/dorm http://www.startupnation.com/dorm http://www.biodiesel.org

Talking Stick - March/April 2009

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