A team of students from Oklahoma State University has won this year’s Entrepreneur’s Cup in the “High Growth Graduate” category. With their business idea SCIVINCE, Soroosh Farsiani, Mahla Hosseini and William Petty convinced the jury of the most important state-wide business plan competition series in Oklahoma. The prize, worth USD 21,000, recognizes a concept that enables innovative 3D printing processes for industrial applications.
SCIVINCE was developed as part of a project by Soroosh Farsiani, Mahla Hosseini and William Petty, supported by Professor Hadi Noori. The idea: a printing system that can also build up precise layers in inverted layers. While conventional 3D printers usually rely on Cartesian or delta kinematics, SCIVINCE uses multi-axis control with multiple print heads to place material in any spatial direction. This flexibility not only allows for improved control of material orientation, but also reduces material consumption as there is no need for support material.
“Our goal was to create a design that enhanced the product strength and durability, and our research proved that we succeeded in that,” said Farsiani, a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology’s School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. “But we also eliminated the need for a support structure in the printing process, which could save at least 15% on material, and in some cases, up to 50%. We can print from any direction, and we can print more complex geometries than printers currently on the market, which would allow our technology to print parts that are currently unprintable.”
“I learned so much about the business aspects of this process, because as engineers, we have no idea — we don’t know anything,” Farsiani said. “The students and faculty at CEAT are developing so many good ideas and technologies, but because we don’t know anything about the business side, we cannot even imagine that it could be commercialized.”
“It was an honor that Soroosh trusted me to take responsibility on this project,” Hosseini said. “For me, it was a great experience, and we learned a lot.”
As part of the NSF I-Corps program, over 200 potential users were interviewed to validate market needs. The team is currently working on further developing the hardware and software as well as obtaining public funding. An SBIR grant of over 300,000 US dollars has been applied for to accelerate market readiness.
“When I joined, I was impressed with how much had already been accomplished,” Petty said. “Soroosh had already won the Riata Center’s Business Plan Competition, so he already had a strong foundation of key business components. A lot of our work involved building on his ideas, which made the process easier for me, especially since I wasn’t very familiar with 3D printing or the additive manufacturing market.”
“We are refining our business plan every day,” Farsiani said. “Two years ago, when this all started, I had no idea how to even talk to a person about my technology, or to even write about it in a way that could be interesting. I had no idea how to reach out to a potential customer. But now, based on what I learned in the business and entrepreneurship workshops, I learned how to bring the invention to market — and that’s huge.”
SCIVINCE is an example of how interdisciplinary teams – consisting of engineers and business experts – can combine technological approaches with commercial potential.
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