Science

Honey Bee Monitoring Company Wins Student Business of the Year

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Combplex, a company that monitors honey bee colonies in real time, was announced as Cornell’s Student Business of the Year on April 20. Less than one month before, business creators Haley Scofield and Nathan Oakes, Ph.D. students in neurobiology and behavior and computational biology, respectively, competed against 13 other businesses nominated for the award. The criteria for the award include the business’ success in areas like revenue generation, customer validation, creativity, uniqueness and scalability of the business model. After being chosen as the Student Business of the Year, the company receives $5,000 to improve and expand. Judges for this year’s competition included Todd Edmonds, the creative director and founder of Iron Design, Greg Galvin, the president and CEO of Rheonix, Ryoko Nozawa, the principal at the Cayuga Venture Fund, and Sam Sotoodeh, the president of Acquisition Group.

eHub

New Program Creates Methodology for Students to Turn What They Are Passionate About Into an Idea

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Backyard, a Cornell program that assists students with extracurricular projects, was launched at eHub on Feb. 23. Tina He ’19 and Maya Frai ’20 founded Backyard to help other Cornell students jumpstart their projects and provide guidance along the way. The six-week long program, which requires an application, helps students with side-projects by helping them organize and find resources to create a concrete plan. “Think of it as a side-project incubator that helps people discover their passion, one that helps your personal and professional growth, that could also bring an impact,” He said.