SuperStream

Finding Niche Problems to Solve with SuperStream

dgivens8 — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 15:25:41 +0000

Finding Niche Problems to Solve with SuperStream dgivens8 Fri, 03/28/2025 - 11:25

While Idea to Prototype (I2P) students gear up to demonstrate their innovations during this spring’s I2P Showcase, let's revisit the fall showcase with last semester’s third-place winning team, SuperStream.

Founded by John-Wright Stanly, a fourth-year computer science major, SuperStream addresses companies’ audience engagement problem by enabling video previews through shared URLs.

Q&A With SuperStream's Sole Founder, John Wright Stanly

What made you want to pursue this idea?
Stanly: I did a startup three years ago, and we failed miserably. While doing that, I was trying to build in-house and share videos through links. I realized that nothing currently on the internet that I could find was actually solving this issue. Basically, the standard around sharing videos and links is very complicated, and we simplify that process for companies. Even though it's very small and particular, I wanted to be the first person that would solve this problem.

What surprised you about the I2P process?
I did I2P last semester, and I've already pivoted once in the idea. I don’t have all the answers. I’m just starting, and I think it's really cool that a course like this exists at George Tech, where you can be supported and figure things out in the first stages, maybe in three months.

What was your favorite part of I2P?

I think it's the meetups. We get to see what everyone else is working on.

What was the most challenging part of I2P?
I think the most challenging part was being a solo entrepreneur. Honestly, just finding the time in my day.

What advice would you give to other students considering entrepreneurship?
I think entrepreneurship is not as scary as it seems. We're really lucky that we go to a university where it’s supported. I think that Georgia Tech students take it for granted how enriched the ecosystem is here. My friends at other schools don't really have the same support. So, when you go to a school that is as supportive as that, I think you should totally take the leap of faith.

Want to be part of the next wave of technological advancements? Register for the Spring 2025 I2P Showcase to see our latest cohort of I2P inventors and their prototypes. The event takes place April 21, 5 p.m., in the Marcus Nanotechnology Building Atrium.

For those interested in taking I2P, course registration opens for the summer and fall semesters on April 14. The I2P course offers undergraduate students research credit, up to $500 in reimbursement for physical material expenses, faculty mentorship, and the opportunity to compete in the I2P Showcase. Winners receive golden tickets to CREATE-X’s Startup Launch program, a summer accelerator that provides $5,000 in optional seed funding; $150,000 in in-kind services (including accounting and legal support); mentorship; entrepreneurial education; and more. Winners also advance directly to the semifinal round of the InVenture Prize, a faculty-led innovation competition.

The I2P course opens three times a year: in the spring, summer, and fall. Both undergraduate and graduate students can take the course, and undergraduate students can take it up two times. For more information, visit the I2P program website.

Subtitle

Summary sentence

SuperStream, founded by John-Wright Stanly, a fourth-year computer science major, won third place in last semester's Idea to Prototype (I2P) Showcase by tackling the challenge of audience engagement through video previews via shared URLs.

Summary

SuperStream, founded by John-Wright Stanly, a fourth-year computer science major, won third place in last semester's Idea to Prototype (I2P) Showcase. SuperStream tackles the challenge of audience engagement by enabling video previews through shared URLs. Stanly's journey began with a failed startup, which inspired him to simplify the process of sharing videos and links.

Dateline

Fri, 03/28/2025 - 12:00

breanna.durham@gatech.edu

Contact

Breanna Durham

Marketing Strategist

Keywords

SuperStream

John-Wright Stanly

Computer Science

audience engagement

video previews

shared URLs

startup

Idea to Prototype Showcase

Georgia Tech

entrepreneurship

research credit

material reimbursement

faculty mentorship

I2P course

technological advancements

CREATE-X

startup launch

accelerator

seed funding

in-kind services

mentorship

entrepreneurial education

InVenture Prize

Competition

founders

Double Victories at the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase

dgivens8 — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 21:49:37 +0000

Double Victories at the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase dgivens8 Wed, 01/08/2025 - 16:49

Two teams tied for Best Overall projects of the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase. Over two hours, 49 teams displayed prototypes that they developed over the semester to hundreds of attendees, while judges circulated the room. The showcase is the last event of their Idea-to-Prototype (I2P) course, where Georgia Tech students earn research credit (for undergraduate students only), receive up to $500 in reimbursement for physical material expenses, and build a working product with faculty mentorship. The course is held in the spring, summer, and fall. Graduate students can also take the course, and student can take it up two times.

As a part of the showcase, the winning team, or teams in this case, also receive a golden ticket into the CREATE-X summer startup accelerator, Startup Launch. This program provides founders with $5,000 in optional seed funding, $150,000 in in-kind services like accounting and legal services, mentorship, and entrepreneurial education, among other benefits. At the end of that experience, startup teams can present their products to investors and industry partners at Demo Day, which attracts over a thousand attendees each year.

Additionally, winners of the showcase advance directly to the semifinal round of the InVenture Prize, a faculty-led innovation competition for undergraduate students and recent BS graduates of Georgia Tech.

This semester, the first place teams were Allez Go and Soul. Team Allez Go’s founders, Adam Kulikowski and Jason Mo, created a real-time visualization system for fencing blades using infrared light and reflectors to accurately track positions during a bout. Team Soul, made up of Ashraf Mansour, Benjamin Wilson, and Michal Gregus, developed fitness-tracking soles and shoes, combining the functions of a smart scale, a workout tracker, and a diet tracker into a singular device.

Second place was awarded to Team Convexity Electronics, consisting of Calla Scotch, Levi Bloch, and Phi Cai. Convexity Electronics produces 3D-printed circuit boards that aim to be smaller, faster, and cheaper than lithography-based circuitry.

Team SuperStream, made up of solo-preneur John-Wright Stanly, took home third place. SuperStream adds video previews to URLs to increase engagement.

Read our Q&A with Team Allez Go and Soul below, and stay tuned for our interviews with the other winning teams!

Q&As

Team AllezGo

Adam Kulikowski, Sophomores, Computer Science

Jason Mo, Sophomores, Computer Science

Why did you pursue your startup?
Kulikowski: We're both fencers. I've been fencing for 10 years, and Jason's been fencing close to 10 as well. So, fencing as a sport is really hard to view for non-fencers, and so the idea that we wanted to do is use visualizations, animations, and replays in a similar way that other kinds of sport visualization companies did.

What was the I2P course like for you all?
Mo: So, this prototype actually started over the summer. I was in Startup Lab and just did a study abroad program. During that class, they mentioned that I2P is a great opportunity, and I had this prototype already in the works.

What surprised you about I2P?

Mo: I2P was very generous with funding; we never had any issues with using up our $500. It was just really helpful because our prototype was pretty heavy hardware.

What was your favorite part about I2P?
Mo: Our weekly meetings with Aaron Hillegass, our mentor, were always very, very insightful. I just shot him an email for I2P, hoping that we could work together on this. Sometimes we would talk about prototypes or updates. He had some really good insights, but our mentor also has a lot of industry experience and a lot of experience with his own startups. It was really fun to just ask him general questions and career advice. He was always very responsive, very supportive for us.

Kulikowski: In addition, I really liked seeing the iterations each week. I think the weekly updates kept us accountable to do at least one small thing every week. So, it was cool to see how the ideas slowly started to formulate each week, small steps and small progresses.

What was challenging about building your prototype over the semester?
Mo: There's a lot of technical challenges. One of the things we did this semester is we changed from a 30 frames per second (FPS) camera to a camera that shoots at 120 FPS. And with that, we could detect a lot more processing power. The camera that we're using is only limited to Windows. I've been using a very old laptop, and that's sort of been a bit problematic when we're trying to do very compute intensive tasks.

What would you say to students that are interested in entrepreneurship?
Kulikowski: There are a lot of people that came by our booth, and a lot of them were freshmen students. Every one of them we told, “If you have an idea, if you're really passionate about something, I2P is a fantastic opportunity.” This semester, with the hands-off approach, really felt like you could just work on this idea, and everything was there to support you working on it. That was fantastic because it's we could take full advantage of the time, the resources, and truly flesh out this idea. I really love the support we had and how we had the bonding with the other students.

Team Soul

Ashraf Mansour, Senior, Computer Science

Benjamin Wilson, Junior, Computer Science

Michal Gregus, Junior, Physics and Electrical Engineering

What’s the thought behind the name?
Mansour: We're kind of bringing life through our electronics, back into the shoe, and building a better fitness tracker and a more holistic picture of human health.

What was the showcase like for your team?
Wilson: It was a little nerve wracking. I have full faith in our ideas and concepts, but I feel personally like we still have a long way to go for our project. I’m still satisfied with where we are now, but we never really anticipated that we we're going to win anything.

Mansour: The showcase made me realize how much faster all this moves, even compared to my expectations. We came in with a very basic prototype that we wanted to improve on, but I think the potential was enough to sell the judges in this case. Now we have a big responsibility to deliver on that potential.

What was your favorite thing about I2P Showcase?

Mansour: It really reminds you how much of a tech hub Georgia Tech really is. Seeing how entrepreneurship boosts in real time, especially at the early stages, is something that’s really awe inspiring.

What was challenging about building your prototype over the semester?

Mansour: There are a lot of unique engineering challenges with the product that we’re building, some we anticipated and others we didn’t, but I think that speaks to the true soul of engineering. That adaptability and sense of problem solving is really important.

Wilson: I’m very grateful to have the other people that were involved in this project for brainstorming and making the design better.

What would you say to students that are interested in entrepreneurship?

Wilson: I definitely would encourage anyone that wants to pursue their own startup or has a new idea to just start. It’s far more efficient and far more rewarding to put your ideas out there and try. You’ll learn a lot more through that process of failing than you will contemplating.

A photo gallery from the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase can be viewed on the CREATE-X Flickr page.

CREATE-X is now accepting applications for the summer and fall semesters of the I2P course, and applications for their summer accelerator, Startup Launch. The deadline for I2P applications for Summer 2025 is May 12. The deadline for Startup Launch applications is March 19, 2025. For questions, please email create-x@groups.gatech.edu.

Summary sentence

Allez Go and Soul tied for Best Overall projects at the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase, earning spots in the CREATE-X summer startup accelerator and advancing to the InVenture Prize semifinals.

Summary

Two teams, Allez Go and Soul, tied for Best Overall projects at the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase, where 49 teams displayed their semester-long prototypes. The winners receive a golden ticket to the CREATE-X summer startup accelerator and advance to the semifinal round of the InVenture Prize. Allez Go developed a real-time visualization system for fencing blades, while Soul created fitness-tracking soles and shoes. Second and third places went to Convexity Electronics and SuperStream, respectively.

Dateline

Wed, 01/08/2025 - 12:00

breanna.durham@gatech.edu

Contact

Breanna Durham

Marketing Strategist

Keywords

I2P Showcase

Georgia Tech

Best Overall projects

Allez Go

soul

CREATE-X

startup launch

InVenture Prize

prototypes

student innovation

entrepreneurship

Fencing visualization

Fitness-tracking shoes

Convexity Electronics

SuperStream

startups

SuperStream

Finding Niche Problems to Solve with SuperStream

Q&A With SuperStream's Sole Founder, John Wright Stanly

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Keywords

Categories

Double Victories at the Fall 2024 I2P Showcase

Q&As

Team AllezGo

Team Soul

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