Regis’ Innovation Center supports students at hackathon and beyond

On May 17 and 18, undergraduate students Adin McPherson, Okraku Ofei-Agyekum and Nathaniel Wankio traveled to San Francisco to take on the Y Combinator x AgentPhone Call My Agent Hackathon. This event called together participants from around the globe to brainstorm, craft and pitch an AI product using AgentPhone’s phone call-based AI agent within 8 hours. These three students made their mark, placing third in the Browser Use Case Category out of over 300 participants – all thanks to Regis’ Innovation Center.

The Innovation Center, as part of the Anderson College of Business and Computing, supports students, faculty, staff and alumni by creating curriculum and opportunities at the university that address the changing world of business and technology. Serving as student co-directors, McPherson and Wankio shared how the Innovation Center sponsored the trip to San Francisco and its larger community impacts.

“Basically, the core job for the Innovation Center is to support both local and student businesses in bridging the gap between an idea and an actual company,” said Wankio. “We provide mentorship and funding to student teams and also the local community.”

Large-scale hackathons like this call together a large variety of engineers, scientists and students to compete for a chance to be seen and heard by some of the largest companies in the industry. For these three students, this opportunity provided by the Innovation Center put them on the same playing field as the experts.

“It's a bunch of engineers in a room; the IQ pool is so exciting.” Wankio continued, “In the hackathon, you're all equal. Each and every one of you can bear something that can actually win, regardless of the amount of experience you have.”

As described, this hackathon called participants to design and pitch an AI agent that could be accessed via phone call. This unique challenge spurred the group to draw from Wankio and Ofei-Agyekum's personal experiences as international students.

The students decided to pitch an AI agent that connects international students with resources on how to apply to universities in the United States. Using the tools from AgentPhone, alongside Google Antigravity, the service would be available completely through a phone call, eliminating the barriers that prevent many international students from being able to apply. For Wankio, this pitch reflects his desire to provide a pathway for the students who will come after him.

"Like other international students, it's a problem that I've faced a lot. The whole process of coming to the US as an international student from basically any country has a lot of moving parts,” said Wankio. “Because I went through the process, maybe I could create a tool that could help students all over the world who are trying to apply and study abroad.”

As the name implies, the Innovation Center empowers students to dive into the newest innovations in business and technology, including the growing field of AI. The Innovation Center is helping to steer the curriculum at Regis to include the study of AI by supporting both experienced and novice students.

But why study AI? Besides the uses for automation and productivity, McPherson, who is studying accounting and finance, detailed how AI is seeping into every facet of tech and business for his future career.

“Every job market in today's economy works with AI now, especially in accounting,” said McPherson. “Different AIs are working together to build a full ecosystem to automate workflows.”

While providing tools, opportunities and experiences to current Regis students’ future careers, the Innovation Center is also doing something incredible to extend that support to the broader community. The Innovation Challenge is a year-long competition that brings together students, alumni, faculty and the community to pitch their business for a chance to win $10,000 to support the venture and access to an exclusive co-working space.

Beginning in August, each business is measured on its desirability, feasibility, viability and the quality of the owner’s presentation. By spring of the following year, the top ten teams will compete for a shot at the $10,000 prize in front of the Regis community. Ultimately, as Wankio described, the Innovation Center and Innovation Challenge are unsung champions for not only his own education but for developing businesses in Colorado.

Learn more about the Innovation Center here.