Final Reflection

Final Reflection

1. With so many assignments in this class to complete, I think that it is easy for everyone to recall their lows and highs. To begin with, I think that one of the best experiences I have had in this class can be seen in my time spent on developing my big opportunity. I realized how passionate I have become about something after working on it for basically this whole length of the semester. My idea to build a pedestrian bridge on Museum Road derived from my experiences driving on this road and dealing with the mayhem, but also was further supported when I began talking to my peers about how change can be made. For my low experience, I think that this came during the middle of the semester when I found myself unable to complete a great assignment because of my time and resource constraints. The Secret Sauce assignment was the only assignment that I failed to complete in this class and I feel like it was one of the worst to miss because I could have learned more about how the people closest to me felt about me and my potential skills.
2. Again, the most formative experience that I had in this class was the time that I spent developing my Pedestrian Bridge. All of the assignments and work that was completed towards the details of my idea will leave a lasting impact that I will remember for many years. I am proud of myself for accomplishing all of these assignments, but in the end I realize that all of my work could be wasted if there is not anything changed to get rid of the traffic congestion and ensure the safety of pedestrians. 
3. At the end of this class, I feel like my entrepreneurial mindset has drastically increased because I am starting to see things in my life as opportunities that could be worked on. Whether it is a random assortment of resources or just something that could be improved, I have noticed that I have definitely changed my mindset with this class. However, I do not think that I will become an entrepreneur at the end of the day because these assignments have made me realize how passionate I can get about something and I am worried that this could hurt my ability to be successful if I create a product that does not get the same kind of support like my first idea did.
4. The biggest piece of advice that I would give to someone that is beginning this class is to complete every single assignment. I think that it is easy to get in the mindset that missing an assignment for whatever reason is not that big of a deal, but when you have a class that is only out of 100 points, it is way more impactful than I first thought. To combat this, I would suggest that students try to make a schedule at the beginning of every week where they can allot the proper amount of time so that they can complete every ENT 3003 assignment. Lastly, I think that it needs to be better communicated on how important the opportunity assignment is because this is something that you deal with all semester. For me, I am happy that I decided to choose something that I was enjoying to work on because it made me think more critically about the information that I was presenting. Altogether, I think that when students find something that they are passionate about, they should focus on it because this can open up the doors for a great future!

Venture Concept No. 2

Pedestrian Bridge over Museum Road between NPB and Reitz Union



Opportunity

The opportunity that I have chosen to identify exists on the University of Florida Campus, specifically along one of the busiest roads, Museum Road. With the University of Florida being a large, connected campus that has many students focusing on doing well in their academics, there is a problem with traffic congestion. There is an area along Museum Road where there are three crosswalks in one intersection between the New Physics Building and the Reitz Union. Given that this is one of the most popular places to travel around, there is a lot of congestion that is created between students as pedestrians traveling to class and people in cars, trucks, and busses trying to drive around campus. As waves of students get out of class and find it necessary to cross the road, this often creates a lot of traffic as people in motor vehicles have to constantly wait for these people to cross. There are two groups of potential customers in this opportunity between UF students walking around campus and people who are operating motor vehicles along Museum Road. The market for my opportunity being addressed is very specific to the University of Florida Campus because I am only trying to solve the problems for people here and nowhere else. Currently, customers are satisfying this need of being able to travel in an efficient amount of time by either leaving earlier for their destination or by driving like maniacs and not giving any regard to the pedestrians crossing the street. The opportunity to build a pedestrian bridge will be here as long as UF stays as populated as it is and people's attitudes about how to deal with traffic does not get any better.


Innovation

The innovation that I am proposing is to address the needs of students, faculty, and bus drivers that want to be able to travel on campus more effectively and efficiently. This need will be addressed with the construction of a pedestrian bridge that goes above Museum Road to lets students cross the road without having to worry about being hit by a driver that is not paying attention. Not only will this pedestrian bridge benefit students walking from class to class, but it will also help drivers because they will no longer have to deal with the frustration of inching up and up in their motor vehicle as people cross the street in an unorderly process. I am unsure of the exact cost that would be required to build a bridge of this sort, but given the fact that we are a top university in the nation, I am sure that money would be able to be directed towards this effort and if not then I would do everything in my power to fundraise for it. This is obviously something that would need to be clearly mapped out before I would be able to get the University on board with building something on campus. I know that I would have to present things to them about the cost of the project and the type of environmental impact that the construction could have, so there would have to be more information collected before I went through with this.



Venture Concept

This concept that I have proposed will make the flow of traffic more efficient and allow people to walk on campus with a better state of mind knowing that their life is not at risk if they decide to cross Museum Road. Currently there are three main problems that arise with the way that things are set up.


1.) Too much traffic is situated in an area that is not prepared to handle the flow of people that it currently handles so people often spend way longer trying to travel through the area then they should. As a result, people are often frustrated and annoyed as they end up either being late to class or have to deal with a student who walks out in front of their motor vehicle.


2.) There are too many distracted drivers, which puts the lives of pedestrians at risk. People should be able to use a crosswalk on their college campus without having to worry about being hit by a car, truck, or bus.


3.) Many people will find a different way to drive on campus which only makes the rest of campus road even more congested with motor vehicles. It's better to solve the main problem at hand then to just spread the congestion across campus.



Customers will see this pedestrian bridge located across Museum Road and understand that this is their safest way of getting across the street in an efficient amount of time. A competitive idea that could be used to solve the traffic flow issue in this area could be to install another street stop light, but this will only frustrate people further as they still have to stop and wait in this area for the light to change green. Everyone will enjoy my concept because they will not only be able to walk from class to class in a safe manner from the pedestrian point of view, but also for the operators of motor vehicles- they will no longer have to worry about being constantly held up from groups of students crossing.


The Three Minor Elements

1.) I believe that my most important resource for this concept is the fact that I am a credible source of information in regards to the problem as a University of Florida student who deals with the same issues as everyone else. It is easier to get someone on board with you when they have the same lifestyle as you do.


2.) I am unsure of what my next venture would be because I have only focused my efforts towards the University of Florida's traffic issues. Maybe I could look to other college campuses that have the same type of traffic flow issue and try to install more pedestrian bridges to keep everyone safe.


3.) Assuming that I have launched and it has been 5 years, I will be doing something that has no connection to my pedestrian bridge opportunity. I am more focused on this now as a student, but 5 years later I will hopefully just be an alumnus who is happy that they have left a helping mark on the university.

Summary of the Feedback

• After reviewing the feedback that I received from my peers, I realize that with the proper presentation of my ideas and details, I have a lot of support. I believe that people could see the passion that I have to get this idea turned into an actual project that can do something good for the University of Florida campus. One of my peer review comments suggested that I may have some difficulty getting the University on board with my idea, but this is something that I think I can try to persuade by talking with the right people in charge and showing them how beneficial this change can be.
• The biggest change that I made in my venture concept was to better address the concern from my peers about getting the University of Florida to agree with the construction. There would be many details that would be have to be sorted out such as when exactly the construction could occur that would be least impactful to the traffic flow on campus and also how expensive it would cost.