Great Lakes Ventures

Thanks to the new Innovate for Climate course, Sydney Williams now knows a few things about buoys.

For the experiential course, Williams spent a mid-April morning at Wilmette Harbor, just north of Evanston, learning about Lake Michigan’s buoys — anchored, floating, sensor-laden devices that provide valuable data, including air and water temperature, wind speed and wave height. Then she helped Ben Szczygiel, a specialist from Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, prepare the Wilmette buoy for launch.  

Williams, a junior Earth and planetary sciences major, and two of her classmates partnered with the Great Lakes Observing System “to identify communities … who could use observational assets provided by the buoy system to build long-term climate resiliency,” she says. The student team proposed using the buoy data to build a map of climate change effects, such an algal blooms and higher water temperatures, on vulnerable Great Lakes communities, with the hope that policymakers can better address such issues.  

“This is an opportunity for our students to work on real-world problems that affect our backyard,” says Hayes Ferguson, director of the Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which sponsored the new course. 

Ferguson co-taught Innovate for Climate with Ryan Jeffery, managing director for the sustainability program at the accelerator gener8tor, in collaboration with the NobleReach Foundation, which works with student entrepreneurs to address critical challenges in society. NobleReach and the Farley Center identified sponsor organizations that presented student teams with unique problems associated with the Great Lakes. The teams then used startup methodology, including interviews with dozens of stakeholders, to understand the intricacies of their specific climate issue before crafting a relevant, practical solution. 

“Whatever solutions you develop, you have to think of it from a business perspective,” Jeffery told the class.  

Students Sam Rappin and William Kosann, for example, worked with Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors & Premiers (GSGP) to promote awareness of fish underutilization. GSGP encourages processors to use every bit of commercially caught fish and is supporting new ventures, especially in tribal communities, to turn byproducts into fish oil supplements, pet food, fertilizer, wallets and more. 

At the end of the course, Rappin and Kosann were awarded $500 from the Farley Center to continue their project, creating a platform that connects commercial fisheries and processors with byproduct users. They hope to advance their work through The Garage and the NUvention: Energy and Sustainability course.

“The course was extremely beneficial,” Rappin says. “Conducting beneficiary interviews not only deepened my understanding of the problem but also helped me develop valuable real-world interviewing skills. Additionally, the course provided me with insights into the dynamics of working in an early-stage startup.”