This week, Ryan will be sharing with us how he is aligning his work and passions in life through the VB18 programme, where he is currently taking on 2 major projects within the venture-building programme.
- AIRO — developing a minimal viable prototype of a UVC disinfectant wand
Ryan had previously shared with us his experience working on AIRO in the Week 24 post.
2. Imaginarium —rebuilding and refurnishing the Open Innovation Lab at NTU Innovation Centre
Ryan has been working on Imaginarium over the last 4 months, working towards creating a space that is uniquely built and designed for entrepreneurs to learn, create, and network with other fellow entrepreneurs.
You’re an entrepreneur with a big billion dollar idea — Great. Now, here’s the problem, how are you going about to make your idea come to life?
AIROv3.4
While working on the many iterations of the AIRO prototype in the Open Innovation Lab, Ryan found that the Lab was fully equipped with all he needed to succeed — it was indeed perfect for building small-scale minimum viable product prototypes!
AIRO’s product design iteration was completed around end March this year.
I personally went through so much filament trying to get the dimensions and details right through 3D Printing for all of the other considerations like the PCBs ( printed circuit boards ) and switches to fit perfectly.
Our Lab was perfect for small scale MVP prototypes.
However, Ryan shares with us that while the Open Innovation Lab is fully equipped, he felt that it was currently underutilised.
Now here’s where i felt that i needed to do more.
The Open Innovation Lab for which i spent my last couple of months was great. We have machines to help do prototyping, test equipment to conduct electronic tests and teams to help with coding and circuitry design. However, the open innovation lab was under-utilised.
Ryan shares with us that he realised that the biggest stumbling block for budding entrepreneurs most of the time is the lack of access to resources to build their first product to reach their target market.
I realised that the biggest problem that budding entrepreneurs face is the lack of knowledge, expertise, or skillset, or manpower to create their first product and mass produce it to their target market.
As a trained industrial designer with experience within the UIUX realm to create and launch a product, this is by far no easy feat.
This was when Ryan had an epiphany that he needed to Reinvent Invention.
So, I took the idea of IMAGINARIUM, an interior rework of the existing open innovation lab ( OIL ) and pitched it to BoonChow, my project mentor and Project lead of the OIL.
He was extremely keen of the idea of a proper space to teach entrepreneurs skillsets to develop their first product, give them the tools and machine to get their product developed, and a space for entrepreneurs to network with each other.
This project is a dream come true for Ryan as he has always envisioned creating a workshop to help others work on their projects. Imaginarium is the perfect start — making it possible for Ryan to align his work (AIRO) and passions in life (OIL).
The interior design is underway and fingers crossed, all development work should be completed and running by the end of my stint at NTUitive.
It will be killing 2 birds with one stone along with AIRO. As i create AIRO’s first Minimal prototype, it will be the Proof of Concept that the OIL is able to produce something beautiful and functional at the same time.
Ryan shares with us that NTUitive plans to ramp up marketing and awareness of the facility, and to work with the current batch of budding entrepreneurs from the ideasinc.veni programme as a beta launch for Imaginarium.
As Walt Disney always preaches: ‘Keep Moving Forward’.
Ryan’s full account of his journey can be found here.
That’s all for now. Next week, we will be hearing from another Venture Builder. Till then, stay safe!
