The Kettering Entrepreneur Society (KES) hopes to fulfill a need on campus for making students’ ideas and products a reality.

Previously the group has focused on business start-ups, but now wants to support the builders and innovators who don’t necessarily want to start a business.

“When I became president, I noticed if a student had an idea but didn’t want to be an entrepreneur, there weren’t any resources for receiving feedback or funding,” said Trevor Bennett ‘20, A Section KES president. “The Kettering market shifted from those who wanted to launch businesses to students who want to experiment with projects. We aim to help with that.” Members of Kettering Entrepreneur Society meet in Kettering's t-space

Students don’t need to be KES members to get grants for their projects. Non-KES members can receive up to $500 and KES members can receive up to $1,000 whether or not their innovation leads to a business.

“Our goal is not to determine which ideas will work or fail, but to learn from the students’ experiences prototyping / building / testing the innovation,” Bennett said. “Start-up funding is still a big part of KES, but right now the Kettering idea market is young with very few being ready to grow into viable businesses.”

KES meets at 8 p.m. Thursdays in the KES Idea Room on the fifth floor of the Campus Center. To fill out a KES grant application, go to bit.ly/KESApp.

Five Kettering students were awarded KES grants last year. Learn more about their projects:  

Smart Pantry - Peter Deppe

Smart Pantry system tracks inventory in someone’s pantry, recommends recipes based on inventory and allows them to create shopping lists/know what they have while out grocery shopping.

Truck bed sleeping apparatus - Justin Tilley

The apparatus would allow Tilley to sleep comfortably and organize materials in the bed of a truck for weekend getaways. Currently there are solutions for sleeping in the bed of a truck, ie. special air mattresses, however they are not always comfortable, they take up usable space and need to be blown up for each use. This idea would be have a more efficient use of space and/or assist in the storage and organization of other materials.

Stem Cell Based Intervertebral Disc Regeneration - David Sullivan

The device is meant to help facilitate a procedure that was invented by Dr. Perez-Cruet. The procedure uses stem cells, cultured from umbilical cords in ways to regenerate nucleolus fibrosis tissue that makes up the inter-vertebral disc to cure degenerative disc disease. The implant Sullivan is working on is meant to keep the vertebrae appropriately separated while the stem cells regenerate the disc.

Nebula 2FA - Scott Spitler

Spitler wants to use a NFC reader to login remotely to a website.

Mag Counter - Devin Molyn

The mag counter is used to count the amount of ammunition remaining in the magazine. This will use a small arduino, an OLED display, and a simple switch that is easily attached.