It’s every parent and teacher’s worst nightmare. A kid on a field trip wanders off and the headcount at the end of the trip comes up one short.
This is the problem that mynd, a company founded by three Cornell Tech students this spring, hopes to solve.
Neil Lakin, MEng ’15, worked as a high school physics teacher and understands the stress of field trips on the teacher and chaperones. Together with Yukti Abrol, MEng ’15, and Matt Windt, MBA ’15, Lakin founded mynd.
Mynd is developing wristbands to be worn by every student and teacher in any given class during field trips. Each band is connected through a Bluetooth mesh network. When a student steps outside the set range, the mynd band emits an audible alert and the bands of the remaining group will flash red, informing the others that someone has wandered off.
“The device doesn’t require any existing infrastructure, no wireless network, no cellphone reception, no gps, no data,” Windt said, noting that other products on the market used to keep track of children are expensive and utilize external products or systems.
Other products used to keep track of children use expensive technologies like GPS, but Bluetooth is relatively cheap. Mynd bands will retail at roughly $15. When compared to $40-$150 price tags of competitors, mynd bands are much more affordable for families and schools.
Mynd has come a long way from the beginning of spring semester. The team pivoted quickly when it became clear their original project to build a wearable device to detect stress wouldn’t work in the time frame of the semester. Since then, the team has made great progress during Startup Studio.
One element of Startup Studio that helped mynd to move forward is the emphasis on developing their business in addition to the product. With two MEng students and one MBA, the team had to find the balance between the product and the business pitch. Weekly scrum sessions motivated the team to talk about their product and the issues they were facing in a real and accountable environment. The two MEng students on mynd, and other MEng students, had to lift their heads up from their work and look at the big picture of the business.
“As someone from an engineering background, I don’t think I’d be paying as much attention to the pitch and the business [had I not taken this Startup Studio class],” Lakin said. “Without this integrated business curriculum, I would probably be head down working on bluetooth meshes right now. This approach has really informed the engineering process for me.”
In Startup Studio, the motto has been rapid iteration. Monthly Studio 24-hour Sprints encouraged teams to make progress on their product over a short period of time.
Each week, teams had designated studio time to work on their projects. Additionally, they were able to troubleshoot and test their ideas during a weekly Product Management class.
“The big thing is get stuff done fast and test which is a really cool way to approach it,” Windt said.
In addition to set aside work time, mynd consulted with experienced practitioners like Shuli Shwartz and Leland Rechis to get direction. With her background in hardware devices, Shwartz was able to help mynd through various challenges. As their scrum lead, Rechis gave weekly feedback on their progress and future milestones.
“Talking to practitioners one on one is helpful because they can provide tailored feedback to really help us get to the next step,” Abrol said.
Mynd is continuing to develop their product over the next couple months and will conduct a trial with friends and family over the summer with the goal of launching a full trial with students in early fall.
In addition to winning one of Cornell Tech’s Startup Awards, mynd had the opportunity to present at a a Grand Central Tech event in April.
