Page 42 - Arkansas Trucking Report Volume 22 Issue 6

vative thinking that the experts don’t: decided to tackle the problem for the business?”
they aren’t jaded. chance to develop their solution. In the Reeves and two computer sci-
“They haven’t spent the last 20 end, the winning team created an RFID ence students, Ted Thorpe and
years learning why something can’t tracking solution that could fit Tyson’s Jace McPherson, formed Lovelace
happen,” he said. “Everything is possible cabinets for substantially cheaper than Technologies to design a real product,
to them, and the companies they’ve existing market solutions. rfind, that automates the inventory pro-
partnered with so far have come to the Canon Reeves, sophomore in the cess and could save real companies like
lab for that kind of optimism.” engineering department, was on the Tyson $600,000 annually in recovered
The annual entrepreneurial design winning team and is now the CEO of assets.
contest is one way that a company can Lovelace Technologies. “We wanted to These real-world applications are
leverage that power of optimism and come up with something that was mod- possible because of the mentors avail-
possibility. Last year, the contest’s first ular enough to be applied in a variety able to students at the Innovation
sponsor, Tyson Foods, presented the lab of places. Tyson’s a great first customer, Studio. Danny Allred, the studio’s
with a problem --$600,000 of asset loss, but we wanted to go further than that new program director, is an alumnus
due to lost or misplaced scanners, the eventually,” Reeves said. of the University of Arkansas’ College
little handheld devices workers carry In the process of competing in the of Engineering. He spent most of his
around to track incoming and outgoing design contest, Reeves found an experi- career working at technology startups
inventory. ence deeper than just engineering les- in Austin, Tex. and earned his MBA
They were looking for a simple, scal- sons. He learned how to run a business. while there. His skillset fits the hybrid
able solution to be able to keep track of “It’s been extremely valuable for me between engineering and business that
them, understand when they’re checked to kind of reframe my mindset when the Innovation Studio aims for.
in, checked out. Students self-formed I attack a problem. It’s not as much of Allred said the Innovation Studio
teams to be able to solve this challenge the engineering part of it anymore, it’s mimics the startup environment, so he
and win $10,000 in seed money. the people part of it. How will people is in a position to teach what he learned
The solutions already on the market actually use this, and is this viable? Can in that space like how to do statements
were too expensive. Around 50 students I monetize this, and is it a sustainable of work, draft proposals and interact
with customers.
“Technology people aren’t well-
We Go the Extra Mile to known for communication skills so
you’ve got to teach them how to close
that gap,” he said.
Make Sure You Can Too! next great idea in logistics could come
It’s not hard to imagine that the

from a lab like this. With autonomous
trucking, platooning, electric com-
mercial vehicles, the trucking industry
DOT Drug Testing is our specialty. certainly seems to be on the precipice
of embracing innovation. The new tech-
nology will undoubtedly present new
problems that will need fresh ideas to
solve them.
Contact us for a free quote! Johnson said, “We would cer-
877-750-3660 tainly welcome the opportunity to work
directly with companies in that space,
www.courthouseconcepts.com not only to learn from that and seed
those opportunities so students are
coming out with that type of a knowl-
Collection in over 5,000 locations nationwide edge and experience solving microcases.
I think that there’s a lot of ways that a
lab like this could be used to help grow
Fayetteville, AR that industry.”
Little Rock, AR Luckily, fresh ideas are in good sup-
ply at the McMillon Innovation Studio.
ATR

42 Issue 6 2017 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT