Juicy Ideas in Asheville, NC

NC Now Feature

Hundreds of college students all across western North Carolina have been collecting their plastic bottles for an internet competition called Juicy Ideas.

The challenge, sponsored by AdvantageWest and their partners at DigitalChalk, was to create something good for the community out of what is otherwise thrown away.  They had only ten days to design and build their product and produce a video about it for YouTube.

Troy Tulle, who grew up in the western part of the state and returned there after graduation from NC State University, was part of the team that iniatied the campaign.  “The idea was to give them a recyclable item and see how creative they could be,” said Troy, who is the chief financial officer for an innovative company called Digital Chalk.  “Could they be innovative and creative and create value out of something that nobody sees value in?”

Of 79 teams in North Carolina, three emerged as finalists.  At Western Carolina University (WCU), Engineering Technology students built a wind generator.  At Appalachian State University, a team from the Industrial Design created a bicycle they would like see in production.  And the Mighty Kites of Western Piedmont Community College (WPCC) came up with the juicy idea of adding recycled bottles to wall insulation.

Corrie Wilson and her team at WPCC in Morganton said they learned a lot about construction in the process of building a wall with bottles in the insulation.  Their faculty advisor, Eric Hurley, said the idea of bottles was actually a good one, adding considerably to the R-value of the insulation. 

The WCU team struggled to come up with an idea that would really be beneficial. Ben Plowman, a junior in Engineering Technology, said he enjoyed the brainstorming as much as the process.  Ben’s team put together a small wind generator.  He said they spend less than ten dollars on the project. They only had to purchase the actual electrical unit and wire.  When activated, the windmill generates less than one volt of power, but Ben says he could see putting lost of them on top of fence posts in rural areas.

Appalachian students in the same Product Design major are excited about their recycled bottle bicycle.  The wheels, chain and seat came from a friend’s old bike.  They shaped the handlebar and frame by using a dowel rod as a base, then melting the bottles with a heat gun. According to Ryan Klinger, they used 300 or 400 bottles, but when they removed the wooden towel the rods were strong.  “The bicycle is really light weight,” explains Ryan. “If we had more time and we had the money to really build this right, it would be very inexpensive.  Our idea is to provide these recycled bottle bicycles to college campuses or towns to be used as free bikes---people could ride them whenever they needed to, to go where they want to go, and then just leave the bike for the next person.  It would be awesome.”

Julia Rowland, the assistant director at ASU’s Center for Entrepreneurship, served as an advisor for the Juicy Idea team.  She said that students today are inspired to more for the community.  “They really do want to do good and want to implement change,” Julia explains.  “And it might be that they just have one concern.  And it might be for the environment, it might be for poverty, it might just over all quality of life for people.  But I see that and it’s a strong drive.  They’re dedicated to doing something good.”

Organizers for the Juicy Idea campaign are very excited about the quality of the ideas and the enthusiasm of the students. 

Dale Carroll, CEO of AdvantageWest in Asheville, says, “The future of our mountain region depends on having an exciting environment where young people feel they’re appreciated, their work and ideas are recognized and Juicy Ideas was a way to bring some structure to that.”

Although the contest began as a regional event in North Carolina, it has already spread throughout the United States.  GOOGLE has become involved and is providing a prize to the national winner.

For more information, visit the Juicy Ideas Web site.