Company Business Team Sponsors

Camp BizSmart, is a summer entrepreneur academy located at Stanford & Santa Clara Universities for students age 11 -15. Exciting and often award winning early stage companies in growth spaces like alternative energy, virtual learning, biotech, “edutainment”, and cleantech sponsor individual teams. Student teams invent solutions to specific “hot topic” current problems, write a competitive business plan and present it to a panel of Silicon Valley investors. Executives experts from companies like Apple, Google & Cisco mentor the students on idea generation, customer requirements, budgets and cash flow, collaboration and communication skills.  This unique summer business academy prepares students for the competitive global marketplace.

Watch this space for 2010 sponsor companies. Award winning companies that sponsored 2009 team projects were:

Valence Energy – Valence Energy’s smart micro grid gives users the power to manage both energy generation and consumption. Imagine, for example, a school campus that can power itself through blackout periods, or a neighborhood that can use power during the night to cool water that is used for air conditioning during hot afternoons when the stress on a power grid is at its maximum. Now give these processes the ability to talk to one another through an internet-based web application and suddenly the building owner has unprecedented abilities to control how power is efficiently and economically used.   Students will look at ways to clean solar panels on top of public buildings to increase energy output, and ways to connect energy devices to a micro-grid that can monitor energy consumption. “Despite the fact that many of us graduated from college less than a year ago, we have already identified a valuable niche and we are changing the world.” -James Bickford

Hara - Hara’s Web-based software tracks the resources used by the company, like electricity and water, and emissions like carbon and other waste. The software then forecasts future emissions and helps a company choose ways to reduce them, like new lights or a different type of refrigerator. It tracks its progress and creates an audit trail. Hara is the Sanskrit word for “fresh green.”  Hara’s smart energy tracking student team project – students will design an iPhone app/game to both measure people’s energy use and carbon footprint in day to day activities, and motivate them to make energy efficient choices.

Serious Materials – green construction products that save energy and improve comfort. Student team project -“Let’s get serious” invent an innovative smart classroom to conserve energy and boast learning.  High performance schools Get Serious about conservation of important resources such as energy and water, and thermally, visually, and acoustically comfortable environments.  All which work together to create better learning environments and save operating costs – which is good for everyone.

FRS “Healthy Energy to Be More.” – What began as a research based way for endurance athletes to run, pedal and swim faster and longer, has become a healthy energy solution to keep everyone on their toes. Ten cents of every case of FRS sold goes to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Live Strong both share a philosophy that a healthy lifestyle maintained through proper diet exercise can prevent illness and disease.  Students will solve how to increase awareness of healthy energy among young people by creating an innovative Healthy Energy Be More marketing campaign that will also benefit the Live Strong Foundation.

Cisco – Smart Grid, a complete reworking of the electrical grid, for utilities, government entities, and concerned businesses alike.  Here, in the United States, Cisco is partnering with key organizations to pilot Smart Grid projects. The smart grid is essentially a 21st-century re-imagination of the current electrical grid, based on the IP network. Utilities, for example, gain operational efficiency and a platform for new services. For the general public, the smart grid enables choice and control over energy consumption, as well as energy efficiency and a better environment. Truly a win-win situation.

But for smart grid to take off, we need cross-industry and cross-functional partnerships to come together. Our students will solve, how to get more people informed and connected so that we all “consume smart” through smart meters to monitor use of appliances and connect to a smart IP grid.

WAGIC – an idea & special effects company, who worked on the “Iron Man” and “Transformer” movies, as well as idea solutions for Netflix, HP, and Home Depot, will lead project teams through brainstorming and 3-D prototyping of their solutions.

Inc. Magazine and Alibaba.com will host Camp BizSmart winning teams at the “Newpreneur of the Year” contest finale in San Francisco on Nov. 18, 2009.