Last Friday, February 2, students from UR and RIT teamed up for the NextGen Challenge, a full-day competition held to address real issues faced by a local company. The company for this challenge was Rochester-based Craft Cannery, a rapidly growing startup specializing in contract food manufacturing for sauces, dressings, marinades, teas, soups, meals-in-jars, and more. The company is looking to double their existing 5,000 square foot production facility to meet increasing consumer demand, while maintaining required safety standards and ensuring timely delivery.

Craft Cannery CEO Paul Guglielmo kicked the day off with a rundown of Craft Cannery as a company, the issues they are facing, and a layout of the current facility. Students were then split into four teams and tasked with developing updated floor plans, taking into consideration the extra square footage, safety measures, cost effectiveness, and optimizing Craft Cannery’s process flow.

After a day of brainstorming, the teams presented their ideas to the judges –– Craft Cannery Production Manager Dan Nichols, and Simon Business School professors Roberto Colangelo and Mark Wilson. 

In first place came Ujval Madhu (RIT), Bohan Cui (E5 ’24), Meina Liu (EdD ’24), and Dylan Horton ’27. In second place came Javlonbek Khamzaev ’27, Paul DeSouza ’25, Tan Phan (MS ’24), Jaimin Shah (MS ’24), Katie Lee (RIT), and Marcel Shaffer (RIT). Congratulations to both teams, and a big thank you to RIT, the judges, and everyone who participated!

From left to right: Ujval Madhu (RIT), Bohan Cui (E5 ’24), Meina Liu (EdD ’24), and Dylan Horton ’27.

From left to right: Javlonbek Khamzaev ’27, Paul DeSouza ’25, Tan Phan (MS ’24), Jaimin Shah (MS ’24), Katie Lee (RIT), and Marcel Shaffer (RIT).

From October 19 to November 16, SMD Entrepreneurs, a UR student group focused on supporting students’ entrepreneurial endeavors, held the first UR Patient Safety Technology Challenge in partnership with the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative (PRHI). PRHI is an organization dedicated to educating medical professionals about solutions to improve the quality and safety of delivered healthcare. Specifically, they seek to combat preventable medical errors, the five most common of which are medication errors, patient care errors (e.g. blood clots, pressure injuries, falls), procedure or surgery-related errors (e.g. excessive blood loss), infections, and diagnostic errors (e.g. missed or delayed diagnosis). PRHI sponsors Patient Safety Challenges at universities across the U.S., with the goal of increasing awareness on the subject and encouraging the development of innovative technologies to address these issues.

Team SAMA presenting their idea for VapGuard. Image courtesy of Henry Litsky ‘24 (E5).

Over the course of the program’s four week run, the eight participating teams received mentorship from medical professionals, as well as guidance from business experts on commercialization plans. On November 16, the program culminated with each team presenting their work to a panel of judges. The first prize winners of $2,000 were team SAMA, Sudarshan Ramanan ’29 (M.D. Candidate, SKMC), Aditya Gunturi ’28 (M.D. Candidate, URSMD), Mathew Stephen ’30 (M.D. Candidate, URSMD), and Aashay Mardikar ’26 (BS in Biochemistry). Congratulations to SAMA on their success, and to all of the teams who participated!

Image courtesy of Henry Litsky ‘24 (E5).

By Lizmairi Vargas Santa

Conference 2023: A Future of Success was a project focused in the Dominican Republic, aiming to find the disparities in the learning structure of students in 11th and 12th grade of high school. The inspiration behind the project aligns with the gap created for students who lack professional mentorship and intellectual learning support. The Dominican Republic is an island where tourism accounts for the majority of its economic growth. However, the country has not witnessed significant improvements in areas such as unemployment or education for many years. 

In economics, I have learned the massive impact unemployment and education have on one another, and on the economy in general. I have become passionate about learning how the government can tackle these issues, and further, why the government has not prevented education and unemployment from becoming one of today’s main challenges.

It is evident that a lack of education and unemployment have a strong correlation. A lack of educational support throughout high school leads to a disinterest in higher education, which in turn increases unemployment rates. This increase in unemployment leads to the discouragement of students and their dependents, due to difficulties in accessing jobs. 

This project was focused on gathering data from these students, to try to discover the conflicts surrounding their educational goals. We did so through a five day long conference, filled with workshops that covered many different topics such as financial stability, career readiness, and entrepreneurial innovation. It took four months to design the content of and market this project. 

Vargas Santa and Randy Custodio Brito with group of students after a workshop.

I partnered with organizations here at UR, such as the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, iZone, the Fellowship Office, and the Office of Global Engagement. This project was also supported by the Ministry of Culture in the Dominican Republic, and a few radio stations there. These organizations helped me design, execute, and fund this project. 

With more than 300 attendees, the outcome was overwhelmingly positive from all the academic institutions that participated. The senator of the town in which the conference took place was very grateful that we took such an initiative, and many parents of attendees reached out after the conference concluded to express their gratitude. 

This experience was exceptional for me, as the individual who created it, and inspirational for the attendees. Not only was I able to expand conversations about certain topics, I had the opportunity to hear students talk about the issues they currently face. I found that students want support systems to orient themselves toward opportunities that are best for their career and personal goals. 

As a future entrepreneur, I had the opportunity to put my entrepreneurial spirit into practice through planning this event, and gathering all necessary requirements for this conference to take place. Entrepreneurship means “embracing change to drive innovation,” and my contributions to this project highlighted this message throughout every workshop offered. 

Vargas Santa presenting to a group of students.

I want to make a change in education in the Dominican Republic, and help students not feel hopeless about career opportunities in their native countries. My goal is to embrace the importance of education in Latin America, and work with organizations to promote the exposure of career content to create avenues for students who are interested in certain areas of study. 

I am proud to have had the courage to create this conference because I am now more aware of the areas of focus for my future businesses. Also, I want to give my gratitude to the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and all the other offices that made this project a reality. I want to express my continued interest in promoting change in education, and articulate that this is a path I see my entrepreneurship ventures focusing on in the future.

Check out this video for a look at the event!

Lizmairi Vargas Santa ‘26 is intending to double major in Economics and Business Entrepreneurship. Lizmairi is the 2022-2023 recipient of the Delno Sisson Prize, and a HOBY Youth Leadership alumni for the state of New Jersey. Lizmairi is also the Minister of Social Outreach for the Student Organization for Caribbean Awareness (SOCA), and the Fundraising Chair of UR’s chapter of UNICEF. This past spring, Lizmairi traveled to the Dominican Republic to host her Medallion Capstone Project Conference 2023: A Future of Success, and is currently dedicating her free time to learning about real estate. In the future, Lizmairi wants to work for an investment banking company as a management consultant, and hopes to found her own shoe brand in New York City.