Ford, who graduated fromÌıÌıwith his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 2014, has been a self-proclaimed maker his entire life. Now, as a senior design engineer at with his Steady Scope technology moving to production, he can call himself an inventor.

Manzella, who graduated from with his master’s degree in business administration in entrepreneurship, is a senior digital marketing specialist at FirstBuild, where he established their revolutionary Blitz Process for idea development which helped Steady Scope become a reality. Manzella also is an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at UofL, where he mentors student-led start-ups, provides support for initiatives at the and teaches courses in management and entrepreneurship.

UofL News caught up with Ford and Manzella to learn more about their accomplishment and how their time at UofL helped fuel their passion for entrepreneurial creativity and innovation.

UofL News: What is Steady Scope and what makes it different from other fish-finding technology on the market?

Ford: Steady Scope is a gyro-stabilized transducer mount. And that’s just a complicated way to say, it’s a pole that turns. But what’s unique about Steady Scope is that it’s a solution to a problem that came about with the advent of forward-facing sonar in fishing around 2018. Traditionally, fish finders were just a cone that would go downward. I like to use the analogy of an underwater flashlight. If you just shine it straight down, it doesn’t really matter if you turn because your flashlight is just a downward cone, but when you face that flashlight forward, like the headlights on your car, they have to shine in the direction you want to see. So, Steady Scope keeps your sonar facing in the direction you are wanting to see no matter how much your boat is moving with the wind or the wave.

As a fisherman myself, I was adopting this new technology, which led me to look for something to buy and put on my boat, but there wasn’t anything that actually solved the problem. The options that were out there for what was essentially a pole that turned were $700 to $900, which were ridiculous prices for the technology. So, we immediately identified that there was room for a high margin product in the space where the technical feasibility was pretty easy to accomplish.Ìı

UofLNews: FirstBuild is typically known for its home appliances, so how did the idea for a fishing product come to fruition?

Manzella: Something that’s amazing about FirstBuild is that we are here to explore new markets for GE appliances. While Steady Scope is definitely not a typical appliance, it kind of fits into GE’s mission to “enable happiness and wellbeing in every home.â€� Gus was able to use our Blitz Process, which is how we validate that anyone cares about these new invention ideas. It involves a lot of what we call customer discovery, or going out and talking to real customers at the very early stages of idea development to make sure that these people actually care about what you’re working on.

I’ll be honest, when Gus first explained Steady Scope to me, I didn’t understand it at all, but he did such a great job of going out and performing customer discovery and engaging with the fishing community that the data he gathered was irrefutable. The people were so excited about this product that Gus knew that he had a winning idea early on.

UofL News: What was your process for customer discovery and what kind of response did you receive?

Ford: At FirstBuild, our whole mission is co-creation. So, I initially put out some Facebook posts with some CAD (computer-aided design) drawings and kind of verbally described what the idea was, and the response was lukewarm. But then I posted a video of me just holding a 3D-printed prototype in my kitchen and rotating it and – Boom! – people actually understood it. Once the idea was understood, it kind of went viral. That rough video shared on my personal Facebook page – not even backed by FirstBuild – was liked and shared with hundreds of comments on it.

UofL News: Does the feedback you receive during customer discovery influence product development or design?

Ford: Absolutely! When we shared it on the FirstBuild YouTube channel, we started getting a lot of feedback about different control options and mounting applications. That feedback drove us to try to create a universal product that would work for multiple applications beyond my initial scope. That is FirstBuild’s process of co-creation. Being very open and forthright with your development process let’s people kind of guide you and help identify a market that you didn’t initially target.

While Steady Scope started as a 20-foot bass boat type product, it has grown into a product that is more or less universal. Kayak fishing is growing to be a pretty big market segment, so coming up with a solution that fit all those different consumers not only expanded our markets and sales potential, but also helped us develop our product to be more of a universal fit for everyone.

UofL News: At FirstBuild, what is the process for launching new products, like Steady Scope?

Manzella: When we launch new products, we want to have confidence that there is enough demand for the product to justify launching it. So, we try to understand how large the market is through some very in-depth data and analytics and then set an appropriate crowdfunding goal from there. Part of the goal is usually used to justify the cost of tooling up the product – ‘What is it going to take to manufacture this product?’ And then another part of the goal is that we really want the community to pull this product into the market, not just us pushing it into the market. So, we want to make these goals kind of challenging to the point where there is a high enough volume that customers are pulling the product from us.

UofL News: Now that Steady Scope met its crowdfunding goal, what’s next?

Ford: We are moving toward production. We’re finishing our validation and starting to work with our micro-factory, which is largely student labor. It’s basically any college-age students, but we get a lot of UofL students. We do low volume production and house. The unique thing about FirstBuild is we can take an idea from prototype to production right here. So, that’s where we are now. We are putting together our manufacturing plan, shipping and logistics, starting to cut tools and get the manufacturing process ready, so that we can start delivering these this year.Ìı

UofL News: Is there anything else you all would like to mention?

Manzella: Sure. We have a fully functional micro-factory at FirstBuild and many students, specifically UofL engineering students, come to FirstBuild to work in our micro-factory, which provides a lot of hands-on experience. We’d love to see more UofL students working on projects in our free Makerspace, because it is a resource right here on campus.

Ford: Go Cards! And go fishing!

by Karen Coombs, Office of Communications & Marketing

“Since I was very small, I’ve always been driven to learn,� said the Louisville native. “I’ve been analytical, curious, interested in not just why things are the way they are, but how they work.�

The bioengineering sophomore had several obstacles to overcome in life, including the loss of his mother as a young teen, along with mental health difficulties.

Frank, who was homeschooled through most of middle and high school, says “it was mostly just me on my own with the computer, figuring out what I was interested in. Engineering cropped up very early on as a potential choice, and it always appealed to me because it seemed to jive with my personality.â€�

After high school and a gap year, Frank attended Jefferson Community and Technical College (JCTC) to explore his options, but he kept finding his way back to his dream of engineering. However, in entrance testing at the community college, he discovered he was at a ninth-grade level in math.

“I knew if I wanted to do engineering, I had to get real good at math real quick,� he said.

In those early days, there were times when Frank spent four hours a day on math in addition to everything else, but he eventually got to a point where the concepts just clicked.

Applying to at University of Louisville was a relatively easy decision that felt like fate, said Frank.ÌıComing from a nontraditional background prompted Frank to encourage other students like himself who might not think they had what it takes to become an engineer. He volunteered with the bioengineering department to give a presentation at Moore High School, near where he grew up.

“I felt like it was important to reach out and speak to them — I was homeschooled, I had behavioral problems, substance abuse issues, but here I am a sophomore and I’m doing advanced calculus now for fun,â€� he said. “It is not impossible, it is absolutely doable, and they need to hear the message that there is always a way to rise above.â€�

Frank’s star continues to rise. He discovered his niche working at , an innovation hub sponsored by GE Appliances on the Belknap campus, created as a space for engineers and product developers to dream up new products.

“FirstBuild has been a blessing and an absolutely transformative experience for me,� said Frank.

Early on, he was given the responsibility for designing an assembly line in the manufacturing process for a new product. Within six months, he was promoted to Assembly Lead, and now co-manages and mentors 20 to 30 students.

“Jacob is naturally gifted at being able to solve problems and help people,� said Brenden Hoover, manufacturing engineer at FirstBuild and Frank’s supervisor. “He makes every employee we have a better employee. Engineering school is hard, and I think his story speaks loudly to those students who are struggling.�

.

Equal parts street festival, science fair and business networking event, Louisville Maker Faire is billed as “The Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth.� Makers range from tech enthusiasts to crafters to homesteaders to scientists to garage tinkerers, all sharing the Louisville Maker Faire purpose – to entertain, inform, connect and grow the maker community.

Launched in 2006 in the San Francisco Bay Area, Maker Faires have been held in more than 200 cities throughout the world, according to Make:. The Louisville Maker Faire dovetails with UofL’s strategic goals, said UofL Interim President Lori Stewart Gonzalez.

“UofL and Louisville Maker Faire share a common goal: applying creativity and innovation to address needs today and into the future,� Gonzalez said. “At UofL, we concentrate our research and scholarship efforts behind three Grand Challenges – Empowering Our Communities, Advancing Our Health and Engineering Our Future Economy – knowing the solutions we find will make a difference and create a thriving future for Louisville, for Kentucky and for the world. Louisville Maker Faire, and the makers it calls attention to, do likewise. We are proud to again host Louisville Maker Faire and are thrilled that it is returning.�

Sponsors of the event include GE Appliances, a Haier company, and FirstBuild, a co-creation community that is changing the way products come to market backed by GE Appliances and housed on UofL’s Belknap Campus.

“At GE Appliances, we’re always looking for new and better ways to make life easier for our customers, drive change in our communities through opportunity and create possibilities sparked by connection and curiosity,� said Kevin Nolan, president & CEO of GE Appliances. “The Louisville Maker Faire brings our community of makers and creators together driving inspiration, innovation and collaboration. The opportunity for students from kindergarten to college to experience creativity in action helps them see the potential of what can happen when we come together and what can be made from concept to creation.�

Maker Faires contribute greatly to fostering learning and inspiring a love of inventiveness in children and ultimately have a positive economic impact on the cities where they occur.

“Louisville Maker Faire helps us further advance our vision of innovation and lifelong learning for all by showcasing our active maker community, growing tech sector and thriving art scene that is building momentum across our city and the region,â€� said Grace Simrall, chief of the Office of Civic Innovation and Technology for Louisville Metro Government.

To participate in the 2022 Louisville Maker Faire, go the event’s web page.

See a video from the .

The upcoming eventÌıwas announced today.Ìı

The Louisville Maker FaireÌıwill be a free, family-friendly event that includes spectacle acts,Ìıexhibitions, competitions, hands-onÌıworkshops, speakers, musical performances and more.

“We look forward to bringingÌıthe community together on our campus to create, discover and be inspired,â€� said President Neeli Bendapudi. “This event will show the incredible powerÌıof partnership between our university and local industry.â€�

“Hosting our city’s first full-featureÌıMaker Faire is an example of how businesses and organizations are workingÌıtogether to driveÌıinnovation, and a reflectionÌıof theÌıbuddingÌıtech sectorÌıand thriving art scene that have gained momentum in Louisville and acrossÌıthe region,â€� said Larry Portaro, president of FirstBuild.

Rob Keynton, UofL’s interim executive vice president for research and innovation, said the university is a “hotbed for innovation,” adding that his office is dedicated to working with community partners to do even more.Ìı

“This September, thousands of makers, artists and entrepreneurs from across the U.S. will see, first hand, what our students and faculty can do when they attend Maker Faire on our campus,” he said.

GE Appliances, oneÌıof the event’s flagship sponsors, backs FirstBuild and is a Louisville-basedÌımaker that has been inventing andÌımanufacturing home appliances for more thanÌı100 years.Ìı

“This Maker Faire will beÌıthe largest gathering of inventors, creators and makers that this city has everÌıseen,â€� said Kevin Nolan, president andÌıchief executive officer of GEÌıAppliances. “Hosting this event in the hometown of GE Appliances showcases the brainÌıpower and creativity of ourÌıcommunity.”

Similar Faires have beenÌıheld in cities across the globe since 2006. Louisville has hosted aÌısmaller-scale, single-day mini maker faire for the pastÌısix years.

“From my first day as theÌıcity’s mayor, innovation and lifelong learning have been among myÌıcore pillars to help our community thrive and grow,â€� saidÌıLouisville Mayor GregÌıFischer. “Maker Faire will help us continue to advance that vision.â€�

Organizers are seeking makers,Ìısponsors and volunteers to contribute to the success of the event. Makers canÌısign up to provide an exhibit,Ìıpresentation, performance, workshop or demo.Ìı.Ìı

See more .

Check out video from today’s press conference:Ìı

The company has launched , a technology startup with headquarters just north of the Belknap campus.

“We love the partnership between UofL and Giddy,� said Mark Rondina, Giddy’s director of User Experience. “We feel that it really is mutually beneficial.�

The idea is to get students and other online makers to help companies create new products and refine existing ones. There are prizes for winning challenges, like designing a or a .

“We are able to work with talented designers with fresh perspectives and ideas and the students gain experience in a production environment,â€� Rondina said.Ìı“They are able to apply what they have studied to real world projects and deliverables.”

Amber Kleitz, a senior studying communication art and design, is now a junior designer at Giddy. She said these experiences allow students to collaborate with people outside their chosen discipline, such as designers with engineering and business majors.Ìı

“As soon as I started working with engineers and developers, I started seeing what the process behind a successful product really looked like,� she said.

Before Giddy, Kleitz also and interned at , GE Appliances’ makerspace and microfactory on UofL’s campus. The center opened in 2014, and has since been as “a model for adapting to a changing competitive environment that disadvantages large firms.�

Giddy is an extension of FirstBuild’s open-innovation model. The idea is to use a community of citizen hackers and makers to generate new products more quickly — and with built-in consumer demand.Ìı

“Giddy is a totally unique enterprise for GE Appliances,â€� said Rick Hasselbeck, GE Appliances’ chief commercial officer. “The successÌıand growth of the FirstBuild innovation model has given us a great platform from whichÌıto launch Giddy.â€�

Giddy’s headquarters are at 227 E. Lee St., just up the street from FirstBuild. That has become a hub for industry wanting to work with UofL.Ìı

In November, Louisville-based Kindred Healthcare across the street from Giddy. And Advanced Energy Materials opened a .

Dr. Rob Keynton, interim executive vice president for research and innovation, said working with industry provides “real-world experiential learning opportunities for our students as well as plant the seed for research collaborations between our faculty and industry.”

“We welcome Giddy to UofL and look forward to establishing a strong relationship with them,� he said.

In the future, your fridge might be able to answer those questions for you, thanks to technology developed by University of Louisville students that uses artificial intelligence software to identify what foods you have and what’s missing.Ìı

The project won second place in FirstBuild’s 2017 MegaHackathon, held at the GE Appliances-backed makerspace and microfactory on UofL’s Belknap campus.ÌıHundreds of hackers spent September 9-10 trying to “Hack the Home,â€� with futuristic tech like smart spice cabinets and automated pet-feeders.Ìı

The fridge team — all sophomores at UofL’s J.B. Speed School of Engineering — also considered building a QR-code oven or a wine cooler for your refrigerator. But after those ideas didn’t pan out, they went back to the drawing board and came up with the ‘A.I. Fridge.’Ìı

“The big challenge of the Hackathon was finding something that truly made sense,â€� said Nico Ferreyra, a member of the team. “In other words, something that the average consumer could use and would want to buy. So, we had to think on a broad scale and come up with certain inefficiencies in the consumer’s lifestyle and solve those inefficiencies.â€�Ìı

For example, the inefficiency in trying to remember what groceries you need at the store. After scanning what’s inside, the A.I. fridge creates a shopping list based on what you normally buy and syncs with your calendar to make the whole grocery shopping experience more automated and streamlined.Ìı

Ferreyra’s team received $2,000 for their overall second place win. They also won $750 for the winning the GE IDO Best Digital Experience for a Physical Product award, and received the PCI LTD Co. Smart Home Award.Ìı

Larry Portaro, FirstBuild’s director, said the third annual competition allowed FirstBuild to showcase its “model of manufacturing to bring out the best and brightest ideas for the next smart appliance.â€�Ìı

“The prototypes generated from each team truly illustrate the idea behind our collaborative community and how ideas can come from anywhere and anyone,� he said.

Another UofL team competing at this year’s MegaHackathon made an umbrella stand that tells you the weather. In past FirstBuild contests, UofL teams have designed and that give you step-by-step recipe instructions.Ìı

Aside from just the prizes, Ferreyra said participating in his first hackathon gave him the chance to get some hands-on experience and apply what he learned in class.Ìı

“I do think students benefit from these events,� he said. “Events like these immerse engineering students into these challenges and bring the true engineer out.�

That’s what FirstBuild’s 2017 MegaHackathon is all about. Teams will spend September 9-10 trying to “Hack the Homeâ€� at the makerspace and microfactory, on the University of Louisville’s Belknap campus.Ìı

FirstBuild, backed by Haier’s GE Appliances, expects more than 300 participants to help create the next generation of home appliances. Teams will be competing for cash and prizes.

UofL students (wink wink, nudge nudge) have actually made a strong showing in past FirstBuild hackathons. During last year’s event, with the theme “Future of Cooking,” MegaHackathon, a team of students, won Best Simblee Connected project for its cooktop that gives step-by-step recipe instructions.Ìı

“We got to come up with an idea for a product, and then see it through to the end,” said then-senior engineering student and team member Sarah Morris. “UofL is so closely tied with FirstBuild, it’s a great opportunity to continue your hands-on work.”

Larry Portaro, director of FirstBuild, agreed the hackathon gives students a chance to get their hands dirty and apply what they learn in class.Ìı

“It’s a great opportunity to work with other passionate makers and enthusiasts to co-create next generation home appliances with the support of our microfactory and access to our tools,” he said.Ìı

No specific experience or background is required to participate. Hackathon contestants can , and sponsorship information is .

The Kentucky-based home appliances manufacturer enlisted UofL to help develop controls systems for a new compressor that will make its refrigerators more energy efficient. The controls system would allow the compressor to take measurements and optimize automatically.

“They’ve (UofL) been instrumental into the controls side of that project,� said Senior Compressor Engineer, Greg Hahn. “It helps us get an edge on intellectual property, so we’ve got more access to deeper knowledge of controls and cutting-edge techniques.�

UofL J.B. Speed School of Engineering associate professor, Dr. Micheal McIntyre, and his graduate student, Joe Latham, have worked with GE Appliances on the project since its inception in 2012.

“It’ll help their refrigerator products to use less energy,� McIntyre said. That forward-thinking will help the company “stay in the marketplace when energy standards become more challenging and difficult to meet.�

This new technology is expected to help the refrigerators use 10 to 15 percent less energy, saving customers money.

This isn’t the first time GE Appliances and UofL have worked together. The former hosts UofL students for hands-on learning co-ops, and the latter has helped GE Appliances solve problems and create new products.

One notable example isÌı, a maker space and microfactory on UofL’s Belknap campus, where GE Appliances has used open innovation to create new products such as the Opal Nugget Ice Maker and Paragon Induction Cooktop.

“They (UofL) have quite a few ideas to help us out as a company,� said Power Electronics Engineer, Srujan Kusumba. “Not just that, but the way of thinking helps us to explore more ideas and also learn new things.�

McIntyre said UofL also learns new things when it partners with industry — and it gives students a chance to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom on real-world problems.

“The value of this is really incalculable,� Latham said. “It’s been great getting to bridge between the academic and industrial world.�

Those were a few of the suggestions University of Louisville grad students Ricky Aguiar and Carlos Gonzalez made in their top-10 entry in the Hotel Room of the Future Challenge. The contest was a collaboration between and makerspace and micro-factory at UofL.

Teams were challenged to leverage modern technology, such as voice activation and internet of things, to create a new guest experience.Ìı

“Hotels are a space where people do have baseline expectations of what they need,” said Symon Harrah, community design manager at FirstBuild.Ìı“How do you build something that when people come into this room, they’re just like ‘wow’?”

Harrah said 21C chose to partner with ,Ìıbacked by GE Appliances, a Haier company, because of its history developing appliance products with open innovation.

“With FirstBuild, they’re kind of a disrupter in the industry,” said Emily Tucker, senior director of brand services at 21C. “And we find ourselves to be a disrupter in the hospitality industry.”

Tucker said the open innovation is good for 21C, which has hotel-museum hybrids in seven U.S. cities, including Louisville. Because anyone can participate, 21C gets fresh ideas from people who actually visit their hotels.ÌıÌı

“By getting fresh perspective, new eyeballs on things that we look at on a daily basis, that allows us to break through the tunnel vision that we may find ourselves in,” she said.Ìı

As for Aguiar and Gonzalez, they’re excited for the experience. They said working with FirstBuild, both on challenges and in its making community, allows students to get their hands dirty before graduating and applying for jobs.Ìı

“Because it’s partnered with GE, as a student, you’re allowed to work on products that help impact the industry,” Gonzalez said. “FirstBuild’s a really great addition to the University of Louisville because it allows us to prototype and build things that help further our career.”

Check out more about the Hotel Room of the Future Challenge in the video below:Ìı

The group was a part of the Innovative Partnership Program (IPP) created through XPRIZE andÌıSingularity University in alliance with Deloitte. According to IPP program director Sean Watson, the goal of the two-day tour isÌıto help senior business executives from leading companies explore the future of manufacturing and product development, as well as discover new ecosystems and partnerships that they can tap into to thrive in the emerging agile manufacturing paradigm.Ìı

“As we looked at the lay of the land in manufacturing, we saw that Louisville was doing some really special things and a lot of it centered around the capabilities of the university,� Watson said. “We wanted to expose these companies to an industrial ecosystem outside Silicon Valley – the places you typically think of as centers of innovation in the world – and to introduce them to places doing dynamic things and are emerging as new centers and new ‘brain belts’.�

While the tour was created for informational and educational purposes, UofL Senior Director of Research Support & Development William A. Metcalf says he is hoping that the exposure will lead to additional public-private partnerships.

“Hopefully, they see some of the exciting things happening here and want to get involved, whether that’s research or to co-locate here and hire our students,� Metcalf said. “We’re not selling anything today, per se, but we’re talking about what we do. Hopefully, they find that interesting and want to be a part of it.�

More photos from the tour are .Ìı