By Craig Lawson, International Programs

PULLMAN, Wash. – University partnerships, education and practical application for dealing with plastic waste in Manaus, Brazil were addressed by the winning team in the fifth Washington State University Global Case Competition April 10.

“This experience shows how WSU cares about enriching other people’s lives,” said Sara Dumit, a native of Brazil and member of the winning six-student team, Team Verde. Other team members are Washington natives.

Team Verde members will have the opportunity to travel to Brazil for further study. Along with the top prize, the teams that place first, second and third each receive scholarship money to be divided among members.

Five finalist teams were selected from 120 participants to compete before a panel of judges with global case solutions.

The winning solution was a three-phase process. Key components included partnering WSU with universities in Brazil to offer training and education in a new system for catadores (waste pickers) and the general population of Manaus.

Advanced phases proposed the idea of a “Green Week” in schools, a neighborhood pick-up program and classrooms built using plastic bottles.

“We were challenged to be out of our comfort zone with people on our team having different majors and backgrounds,” Dumit said.

Team Verde consists of: Dumit, pharmacy graduate student, WSU Spokane; Emma Henselbecker health policy administration graduate student, Spokane; Brandon Hernandez-Cantu, pre-med undergrad, Pullman; Emelia Stephan, international business undergrad, Pullman; Kimberly Rogers, zoology undergrad, Pullman; and Ivan Valdovinos, foreign languages and cultures undergrad, Pullman. The faculty advisor is M. Grant Norton of the Honors College.

By Sue McMurray, Carson College of Business

PULLMAN, Wash. – A student company at Washington State University will compete April 16-18 in the world’s richest and largest graduate student startup contest for more than $1 million in cash and prizes.

Family, friends, students, faculty and alumni can vote now for TriboTEX to win the competition’s $5,000 People’s Choice Award at http://bit.ly/1m75sen. Votes must be cast by 11 a.m. Pacific time on Saturday, April 18.

TriboTEX, a clean-tech startup comprised of four WSUgraduate students, has been selected to compete against 42 teams at the Rice University Business Plan Competition in Houston, Texas. The event gives collegiate entrepreneurs real-world experience in fine tuning their business plans and elevator pitches to generate funding to successfully commercialize their products.

TriboTEX is the brainchild of Pavlo Rudenko, a recent WSU graduate in materials science and engineering who started the company in 2012 to commercialize clean super-lubricants. He and teammates Thomas Gualtieri (engineering), Matt Hanley (business administration) and Qassem Naim (business administration) developed DuoLife(™), a “smart” nanostructured coating that combats friction and wear on mechanical components.

“Any moving part can benefit from our technology,” Rudenko said.

DuoLife(™) is specifically manufactured for large machines with steel gears and bearings, such as windmill gear boxes. The gear boxes notoriously wear out quickly, and to replace or repair them is extremely expensive and difficult. The lubricant delays the need for repair or replacement and is expected to be widely adopted by the energy industry.

The team is coached by Andrew Perkins, associate professor of marketing in the WSU Carson College of Business. Visit http://tribotex.com/ to learn more about TriboTEX or watch a video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzDuRUMgRMA.

Contacts:
Andrew Perkins, WSU Carson College of Business, 509-335-0940,a.perkins@wsu.edu
Sue McMurray, WSU Carson College of Business communications, 509-335-7578,sue.mcmurray@wsu.edu

By Jeffrey Dennison, WSU Tri-Cities

RICHLAND, Wash. – On March 12, the Washington State University Faculty Senate voted to extend the bachelor of arts degree in hospitality business management (HBM) to the Carson College of Business on the Tri-Cities campus. The degree will offer two majors: HBM and wine business management.

“Extension of the HBM degree to the Tri-Cities campus emerges from the strategic vision of campus leadership to produce graduates with job-ready skills that are in demand by the state and local community,” said Donna Paul, professor and academic director for business programs.

“This will facilitate synergistic collaborations with our signature wine science program,” she said. “These two sought-after majors will increase our offerings through the Carson College of Business, making WSU Tri-Cities a very desirable campus for business students throughout the Mid-Columbia region and the state.”

The HBM major provides instruction in the operation of hospitality industry businesses such as hotels, restaurants, managed services venues and tourist destinations.

The wine business management major is a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary degree that trains graduates in a broad range of wine business and related areas – from the management of wine production to the identification and development of demand generators.

Learn more about WSU Tri-Cities and its commitment to dynamic student engagement, dynamic research experiences and dynamic community engagement at http://tricities.wsu.edu

Contacts:
Jeffrey Dennison, WSU Tri-Cities director of marketing and communications, 509-372-7319, jeffrey.dennison@tricity.wsu.edu
Donna Paul, WSU Tri-Cities academic director for business programs, 509-372-7233, donna_paul@wsu.edu

Mar. 10: WSU appoints Hunter as Carson College of Business dean

PULLMAN, Wash. – Larry W. (Chip) Hunter, a scholar of human resource management and industrial relations, and senior associate dean of the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the new leader of Washington State University’s Carson College of Business. WSU Provost Dan Bernardo announced the appointment today.

“Dr. Hunter has the perfect skill set to help us realize the full potential of the Carson College,” Bernardo said. “He is a seasoned administrator with extensive experience at one of the nation’s finest land-grant universities. He has the ability to both work internally with our faculty, staff and students, as well as externally with our state’s business community and alumni of the college.”

Scott E. Carson, the Boeing executive, WSU regent and alumnus for whom the college is named, called Hunter’s hiring an investment in the future.

“My family and I are excited about this new chapter for the college,” he said. “We look forward to working with Dr. Hunter in the future. We also would like to thank Dr. David Whidbee for his work as interim dean this past year. His dedication to the college and its mission is very much appreciated.

Hunter said he looks forward to working with faculty, staff and students to take the college to the next level.

“The Carson College is in great shape,” he said. “The students are motivated to learn and to succeed. The alumni are deeply supportive. The faculty and staff share commitment to the values of WSU, and we’ll be able to build on that commitment and recent success. I look forward to developing partnerships within the college, across the Pullman and urban campuses, and with the business community, to take on new challenges together.”

Hunter has served for the past three years as senior associate dean and Pyle-Bascom Professor of Leadership. For two of those three years, he also served as associate dean for the school’s full-time MBA program. Prior to joining the University of Wisconsin in 2002, he spent eight years on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania.

Hunter earned his doctoral degree in industrial relations and human resource management from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He holds a master’s degree from Oxford University in the United Kingdom and earned his bachelor’s degree at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Hunter was raised in the Palouse region, graduating from high school in nearby Moscow, Idaho.

Contacts:
Kathy Barnard, University Communications, (509) 335-8055, kbarnard@wsu.edu

Sarah Druffel, Carson College of Business, (509) 335-4345, sarah.druffel@wsu.edu

Sue McMurray, Carson College of Business, (509) 335-7578, sue.mcmurray@wsu.edu