Hannah Waleski | Mechanical Engineering '24

Why did you apply for the Commercialization Engine Internship? I applied to this internship because I wanted to bridge my STEM background with my interest in business and intellectual property. Working at the IDEA center allows me to be involved with many interesting, cutting-edge technologies while viewing them from a more practical perspective- how large is the potential market size, what gives this technology an edge, can competitors achieve the same thing, and most importantly: do customers care about the problem this can potentially solve.

What team are you working on? I am on the Risk Assessment Team.

What project are you working on? I am currently working on two projects: a force-sensing method for soft robots and a posture-changing quadruped robot.

Describe your overall internship experience: I have really enjoyed being on the other side of the research I see my professors and friends doing on campus and learning about how the IDEA Center works to bring this faculty research to market.

What has been your biggest takeaway from the internship? My biggest takeaway this summer has been customer validation's importance and failure to move forward early when creating a startup. Regardless of how valuable an idea seems to a founder, customers want solutions to their problems, and it's imperative to be willing to change the original idea to suit better what the customer wants. Failure does not have to be the end of a startup as long as its founders are willing to admit to and learn from that failure while working towards building a repeatable business model.

Fun fact about you: I saw the Northern Lights on a plane ride earlier this summer.