As the harsh cold of winter kept golfers training indoors in early 2018, a team of Integrated Business and Engineering students were honing their own skills both on and off the green.
The team consists of Tech Tanasarnsopaporn ’19, Adhitya Jayasinghe ’19, Hanna Mo ’19, Ethan Frohman ’19, Justin Hassenfeld ’19, Kevin Tsao ’19 and Jackson Monnin ’19. After browsing through different projects during an IBE project roundtable, the team decided to partner with local golf pro Mark Csencsits to help bring a new training device—the Shot Saver—to market.
“[Mark] does lessons all the time, but in his free time he has come up with a couple of products that he’s labeled his Fatt Matt brand,” Monnin said. “We are helping him create a business model for what we think is his most viable product.” The team pitched its plans to prospective investors at Ben Franklin Tech Ventures in December.
The Shot Saver is a set of specialized golf balls meant to be a training device geared toward golfers who struggle chipping onto the green. Each Shot Saver package contains three golf balls cut halfway, one-third of the way, and one-quarter of the way from the top, respectively. Golfers are often afraid to hit down on the ball while chipping, Monnin said, so forcing them to adjust for each new ball will literally “save shots” on the green.
The IBE capstone project, as well as the program itself, aims to prepare students for working in a corporate environment. Offered jointly by the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science and the College of Business and Economics, IBE integrates courses in business and engineering with additional requirements in mathematics, science, English, humanities and foreign language.
A highlight of IBE is its two-semester, six-credit capstone design course run by professor Pat Costa. Teams of students work with faculty mentors on the marketing, financial and economic planning, and technical and economic feasibility of new product concepts.
Read the full story in the Lehigh University News Center.
Story by: Sam Topp '19
Photos by: Christa Neu/Lehigh University
