What do you get when you cross a state-of-the-art, mind-blowing audio option with a transatlantic, wood-burning grill?
What do you get when you cross a state-of-the-art, mind-blowing audio option with a transatlantic, wood-burning grill? You get Macon entrepreneurship in action. And that action is on fire at the the Mercer Innovation Center.
The Mercer Innovation Center (MIC) just announced its 2016 Entrepreneur Fellows, which gives local entrepreneurs the opportunity to launch their businesses with full support from the Mercer Innovation Center. Each year, up to five fellowships are being awarded.
The MIC was formed in 2016 at Mercer University with support from the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority, Birch Communications, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, to promote and advance a culture of innovation and develop a thriving community of entrepreneurs. The Center focuses on furthering economic growth through the use of technology to create 21st century jobs and attract and retain talent. Led by Mercer’s Stetson School of Business and Economics, the Center’s activities and resources are available to all.
Fellows Micah Givens and Marcos Zacarias, both recent Mercer graduates, developed HeadNoise, a headband that allows only the wearer to listen to music through bone conduction (the conduction of sound to the inner ear through the bones of the skull). Together, over the past year, they won the Mercer Innovation Center’s Next Big Idea business pitch competition, were named the top senior design project at the School of Engineering’s annual Engineering Expo, and were semifinalists at the Techstars Global Startup Battle.
KUDU Safari Braai is a wood-burning grill, griddle, and fire pit with interchangeable attachments allowing the user to cook multiple items simultaneously. The product is developed by Stebin Horne, a Macon native and graduate of the University of Georgia and Mercer’s Walter F. George School of Law, whose innovation was inspired during a stint in South Africa, traveling throughout Namibia, Botswana and into the famed Kruger Park of South Africa.
In the spirit of start-ups, with the support of resources like the Mercer Innovation Center, these local entrepreneurs are set to show the world the power of Macon-made innovation.
For more information about the MIC, visit their website or email the center at mic@mercer.edu.
