Published in the Independence Daily Reporter February 14, 2018

Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas

As people in the community come to Fab Lab ICC, making things and getting to know us, we find that many of them are saying “I’ve had this idea for years about a new invention and I’ve never known what to do with it.” They are finding our Lab a safe environment where they can share their ideas without fear or ridicule or the threat of anyone stealing the ideas. Every week or two we are meeting with such members to map out a plan to develop prototypes, investigate patents and validating their markets. The path to market is as different as the inventors and the inventions they bring. Many think the patent is the first step in the process. Sometimes yes, but many times no.

A Patent Is Not Market Validation

Being awarded a patent after coming up with a new idea or invention and navigating through a long and expensive process is often viewed at the “gold standard” of the legitimacy of the idea or invention. For many new inventors, the goal of patenting the idea or invention has been at the top of the list. The thinking is that the patent will both validate the idea and protect the inventor from the theft or copying of the idea. While there are no clear-cut guidelines pertaining to when or even if to patent a new idea or invention, the patent should almost never be at the top of the list.

Government employees at the patent office deeming the new idea worthy of a patent, does not necessarily translate to market validation; that anyone wants to buy the new product. A local banker tells a story of an out-of-state inventor that spent his life savings and mortgaged his house to develop and patent a more accurate rain gage–it leaned into the wind to catch more of the drops. He had paid for scientific data proving his device was more accurate. The only problem was that no one cared enough to be willing to buy it.

A Patent Does Not Offer Iron-Clad Protection

Contrary to many beliefs, from a practical standpoint, the patent does not offer the iron-clad protection against theft and copying for several reasons. First, while the cost of getting the patent–ranging from a few thousand to $60,000–is high, the cost of litigation to stop a patent infringement could be ten times that amount. Second, many times clever copiers can create a product that performs the same function, with just enough design changes to avoid infringement.

Some Inventions Go to the Grave With the Inventors

I know of at least one and maybe two inventors that have put their projects on the shelf because they don’t have the money to apply for a patent. It’s too bad that they may never know whether their product would add value for anyone in the marketplace or not. Maybe it would be better to develop what we call a minimum viable product that would be functional enough to test market to see if anyone wants it even at a small risk of someone “stealing” the idea.

Patent Options

A good patent attorney is more of a patent counselor, not just taking money to mechanically apply for the patent on your behalf, but helping  you  decide when and if to patent at all. We have a relationship with just such an attorney. There is also a little known option to “self-patent.” We have a relationship with the regional patent office in Denver and there is a separate patent process for inventors than for patent attorneys. We have a new relationship with a patent consultant in Tulsa, not an attorney, who has helped dozens of clients navigate through the “self-patent” process. Our best relationship is with local inventor, Doug Misch who has several patents to his credit and has brought dozens of products to market.

Come On Out of the Closet

The first step for any inventor is to feel free to “come out of the closet.” Fab Lab ICC is a place where you’ll find openness to new ideas and a growing network of members and coaches eager to help develop the potential of you and your invention. You’re not alone.

 

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349, by email at jcorrell@indycc.eduor Twitter @jimcorrellks.

 

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter February 7, 2018

Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas

STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

Sometimes you see STEAM with adds Art to the other disciplines. We’ll use STEM and STEAM interchangeably here. From the 1950’s and 1960’s through the 80’s interest in STEM (we weren’t calling it STEM back then) was inspired by the space program and the later, somewhat, with the advent of the personal computer although it was the boys showing the most interest. Actually, there were plenty of girls interested in STEM subjects, but it wasn’t cool back then so many pursued other avenues. We had music and art classes and something called shop classes where you could learn to build things. Many boys aspired to build the great things of the world; buildings, roads, bridges, inventions etc. Indeed, I was focused on a path to become a civil engineer to build some of those roads and bridges. Then, fresh out of community college, I decided to marry and start a photography business. Go figure.

Budget Cuts Led to Elimination of Many Music, Art and Shop Classes

Eventually, budgets began to be cut and art and shop classes, and related equipment, went away. Curiously, there was always plenty of funding for sports. The math, science and technology classes remained with nothing to build. We expected students to stay interested in those subjects strictly from reading and study, with little or no practical application. Many, many lost interest and have not aspired to become engineers and scientists.

How to Rekindle Youth Interest in STEAM

In the last few years, our society, especially politicians, policy makers and educators have held many meetings trying to figure out how to interest our youth in STEM subjects. At Fab Lab ICC, we’ve seen the answer in the three and one-half years we’ve been operating. You can inspire youth interest in STEM by challenging them to solve problems and giving them physical and digital tools to make things. It really is that simple.

Creative Mindset Fosters Success

The key to success in all the STEM fields, both in academics and in real-world application is a creative mindset inspired to solve the problems of the world with new solutions. Challenging young students to solve problems of great interest, to each in their own way, opens their minds to a certain creativity that drives them to learn whatever they need to learn in order to find solutions. In turn, they start to find relevance in the information presented in the technology classes at school.

Entrepreneurial Thinking and the Fab Lab Experience Stimulate STEM Interest

Entrepreneurial thinking comes into the picture for all disciplines because of the way entrepreneurs view problems as opportunities for their creative and innovative solutions. We believe the combination of entrepreneurial thinking with the Fab Lab experience is the best way to stimulate interest in STEM and STEAM. We see it all the time in the youth activities that we facilitate or sponsor in the Lab. Whether it be a boot camp for youth during which each camper can make something he or she wants to make or providing space for teams to build robots that solve the problem of navigating through an obstacle course, Sometimes it starts with a visit by students from surrounding school districts to tour the Lab and start to imagine the things they could make. We always challenge them to figure out ways to change the world and tell them they don’t have to wait until they get out of school to start.

Inspiring Problem Solvers for the World’s Challenges

While we won’t be teaching any of our boot campers how to build actual bridges, or tall buildings we will and do challenge them to start thinking of ways to solve world problems like poverty or lack of clean water. We see that people of all ages experiencing Fab Lab ICC will become interested in the STEAM subjects as related to the problems they choose to solve in the personal as well as academic and professional lives.

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu.

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter January 31, 2018

Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas

Expansion Building Coming Soon

We blinked before New Year’s Day and now we are already into the second twelfth of 2018. While we race into the New Year, we inch steadily toward the ground breaking of the new Fab Lab ICC expansion building. We use the term expansion building to indicate it’s not a building we’ll move into, but rather expand into. So, in addition to the nearly 8,000 square feet we occupy now, we’ll be adding an additional 6,400 square feet. The new building will house a paint booth, a few welding stations, a business incubator and a new studio into which we will move our wide-format printing, still image and video studio and our electronics work stations. We’re expecting to put the project out for bid during the first part of February, 2018 with completion by August 1.

At $700,000 the project is not huge as far as building projects go, but it is the first new building on the ICC campus in about 20 years. It’s quite remarkable that the concept and related funding for this project has come about in just two short years. Interesting to note is the fact that the project did not come about with a primary purpose of serving academic programs. This project is a part of our development of a new tool in rural economic development; assisting entrepreneurs and small business owners in starting and building their businesses to collectively make substantial contributions to area employment and, indeed, rural area economies.

Economic Development is Changing

There’s a continuing nationwide debate about the effectiveness of the traditional model of economic development that involves luring big companies to come in and build large facilities that will employee many people. In the northeast, they call this “chasing smoke stacks,” a reference to the businesses that used to characterize the industry base in the northeast. The challenge is the concessions and abatements necessary to get the “smoke stack.” Many times, when the benefits of the concessions and abatements are exhausted, the smoke stack leaves after engaging in a new auction to see who will pay the most to attract it to a new area.

Entrepreneurship Can Help Large Numbers Even in Tiny Markets

Entrepreneurship and small business ownership has the greatest potential to help the largest number of people, world-wide, even in areas too tiny to effectively bid on the smoke stacks. One-hundred small business owners are the equivalent of a company coming to an area, bringing 100 jobs; only the small businesses generally don’t receive abatements and financial concessions. Some of the 100 businesses will grow to need employees and thus we have a tool to grow from within. We offer access to Fab Lab ICC and our services through memberships available to anyone in our “community” without geographic or other limitations and this includes many entrepreneurs and small business owners working to start and grow their busiensses.

We Need More Start-Ups

New business start-ups across America are down and we need to do something to inspire a new generation of problem-solving entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses. We need to change the mindset from one that thinks new businesses require massive planning and funding to a mindset realizing that 98% of new businesses have always started small—with $10,000 or less in start-up funding—validating their markets early and then growing, some to become large employers.

Expansion Building Funding

This is the reason the United States Economic Development Administration is funding 50% of the Fab Lab ICC building expansion. They see the need to have more business start-ups and they believe the Fab Lab can be a catalyst toward that end. The Independence Community College board of trustees will provide $250,000 toward the matching funds required for the other 50% of project cost. The remaining $100,000 has come from individuals and a couple of non-tax based organizations.

New Model for Work Force Training

In addition to our efforts to grow small businesses, we will provide a new brand of work force training, called Fab Force, that will emphasize entrepreneurial thinking, a variety of technical knowledge skills and experiential project-based learning. Eventually this kind of learning will be a big attraction to traditional students looking for an exceptional and affordable experience during their first two years after high school.

We believe the combination of the Fab Lab maker space and entrepreneurial mindset can be an economic driver in rural communities all over the United States and world, even those too small to afford the cost of attracting large employers.

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu.

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter January 24, 2018

Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas

Most Fab Labs work to keep memberships affordable and are concerned about overall future financial viability of their Labs. We strive to run Fab Lab ICC like a small business, selling materials to members at a modest profit to help with expenses and charging modest fees for the community classes we offer. In our case, we are owned by ICC and receive some financial support since we develop new academic and work force courses. It’s a great combination.

As a small business, we are always on the lookout both for revenue opportunities and innovative training programs. Occasionally, we find a concept that has the potential to provide both a revenue stream and unique, interesting and fun (many would say really cool) learning opportunities.

Guitar Assembly and Kit-Making

Enter the guitar assembly and kit-making business. A couple of years ago, some people at a community college in Ohio saw the potential of guitar making in facilitating math and science learning. There’s a lot of math and science that goes into the guitar; we don’t realize it since guitars have been a part of our culture for so long. They wrote a grant application to the National Science Foundation (NSF) with the objective of launching a guitar making initiative to help get young people interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) by engaging them in the fun, but STEM-challenging activity of making a guitar.

Early Start-Up of Guitar Assembly

We wanted to offer electric guitar assembly classes (from kits) and were planning to wait until next fall when our new building is completed, but it is starting now and we can’t stop it. After mentioning guitar-making at an ICC all staff in-service event recently, Matt Carter, our associate professor of music came to us. He said he had four students in a class to learn to play the guitar and wondered if they might be able to assemble their own electric guitars from kits available for purchase as part of the NSF STEM guitar initiative. We told him we thought we could accommodate four students assembling and finishing their guitars in the Fab Lab but they would have to take the guitars with them after each work session as we don’t have space to store them. Matt came back to the lab the other day saying word had gotten out of the guitar assembly aspect of this class and he now had nine in the class he was trying to cap at eight. Seems the ninth student begged him to be included in the class. We will try to accommodate these nine eager guitar makers and aspiring players in this spring semester with a full launch next fall.

Potential Guitar Kit Manufacturing

In the meantime, we’ve established a relationship with the college in Ohio and they’ve invited us to enter the electric guitar kit manufacturing business to help them fill the demand for these kits across the nation. We’ve found two local experts in manufacturing processes that are willing to help us. One is recently retired and the other, while still working full time, is a master at all things guitar-making and repair. They have both indicated an interest in helping us with this entry into the guitar assembly class and guitar kit manufacturing business.

The assembly classes will be offered starting next fall as community classes, mostly in the evening for anyone who would like to make their own guitars. One doesn’t have to be able to play a guitar in order to build one. In other classes around the United States, whether the participants can play or not is secondary to their desire to make and own a precise musical instrument.

The kit manufacturing process, along with all the related quality, consistency and scheduling disciplines necessary to make and ship products in fulfillment of customer orders will be woven into the coursework of the Fab Force certificate program we are now putting together for launch in the fall.

Guitar Building Is For Us

It seems to use that; indeed, guitar making is for us, providing some revenue potential for Fab Lab ICC while also offering interesting, fun and really cool learning opportunities both for our ICC students and our area community members.

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu.