The Bronx Community college, STEM Entrepreneurship Hatchery and Incubator conducted the inaugural TechFest 2023 on October 27th at the Roscoe brown playhouse. The event was made possible by the Presidential grant 2023 awarded to Dr. Harini Mittal & Dr. Daniel Lazarus from the Department of Business & Information systems.

BCC Hatchery and Incubator makes entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills accessible and relevant for our STEM students to help them build thriving companies and careers, and learn by doing, gaining knowledge and critical skills to help them succeed as technology solution providers as well as problem solvers.

The first batch of seven STEM student entrepreneurs in this program have been working for the past 6 months attending workshops, bootcamps, and one on one mentorship on Idea Generation, soft skills training, presentation skills, prototype creation, testing and product development by interacting with potential customers, peer, and the mentors. This program culminated with the Tech Fest exhibition on October 27thwhere 4 of the student entrepreneurs were able to display and present their product/idea and its prototype. The product ideas/prototypes included an innovative online app for learning calculus through games and events by Ms. Yeni Bautista, an accounting cum marketing solution for small business by Mr. Muhammad Hassan, an innovative tool for success for young adults by Mr. Waaris Badirou, and an innovative product of coffee in a pill by Mr. Wanderlei Sanchez.

The students displayed their prototypes and explained their products to the BCC community including the next batch of STEM student entrepreneurs in this program, and college faculty and students from various departments, as well as visitors who were interested in providing scale up opportunities to these student entrepreneurs. Mr. Milton Medina from NYC Regional Innovation Node, and Ms. Adia Johnson from CUNY startups introduced other mentorship, scaling up, and further funding opportunities available, inviting the students to explore them. The student entrepreneurs shared their experiences and the important life lessons they learned during this program. The event was attended by many other students, STEM student entrepreneurs who have signed up for the next batch of the program.

The event was presided by Prof. Luis Montenegro, Provost of Bronx Community college. His presidential address highlighted and encouraged the student entrepreneurs about their excellence in enduring through the process of idea generation, mentoring, soft skill training and presentation skills, protype creation, and product testing and development. He urged the student entrepreneurs to continue the dream and launch their ideas in successful businesses. Prof. Montenegro also highlighted the importance of giving back to community in which they live and thrive. He congratulated the STEM student entrepreneurs and distributed the certificates to the student entrepreneurs who successfully completed the program and presented their product prototypes.

The next batch of 11 student entrepreneurs with STEM based ideas are going through mentorship right now. The next TechFest Exhibition will be scheduled in the second week of December, 2023. This type of exhibition is a first-time effort for BCC students. For any questions, information please contact Dr. Harini Mittal (harini.mittal@bcc.cuny.edu) or Dr. Daniel Lazarus (Daniel.lazarus@bcc.cuny.edu) or Ms. Kiran Khalid (kiran.khalid@stu.bcc.cuny.edu).