The Iona Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization hosted a Low-Fi Prototyping Workshop designed for young entrepreneurs interested in creating prototypes for their ideas in the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation on Sept. 26.

Rob Kissner, adjunct professor for the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, taught students about the process of prototyping and the difference between low-fidelity and hi-fidelity prototypes.

The biggest takeaway from the workshop was for students to understand that the prototype is for the user, not the creator, according to Kissner.

“The point of low-fi prototyping is to be able to make a physical copy of your idea, whether it’s writing it down on paper, using Play-Doh or cardboard and glue in order to get feedback from the user instead of spending a large portion of your funds on a prototype,” Kissner explained.

Kissner’s inspiration behind this workshop stems from his involvement in The Digital Arts Experience, a company developed to teach children how to use creative technology.

“My company outside of Iona is The Digital Arts Experience,” Kissner said. “We do a lot of classes for kids in creative technology. And a big part of what we do is 3D printing and laser cutting and prototyping with kids, so it seemed like a really easy connection to bring my experience in working with kids to the entrepreneurship class, given that low-fi and hi-fi prototyping is part of the curriculum that Iona students are going through in all the entrepreneurship classes they have here.”

Freshman Soufiane Masrour used the workshop to draw out his low-fi prototype on a whiteboard. His idea is a phone case that can print anything on the screen on demand, such as a business card or receipt.

“I got to use my creative skills and draw what I want to create in the future,” Masrour said.

Kissner explained that due to the structure of the Intro to Entrepreneurship class, there is very little room for prototyping student’s ideas.

“I’m teaching Intro to Ideation & Design Thinking and we do a lot of prototyping in that class, but in the Intro to Entrepreneurship class we have to go through everything really quick in the process,” Kissner said. “So there’s a little bit of design thinking, a little bit of prototyping and students in class don’t necessarily have a lot of time to really get into it because there is so much else to think about. So this provides an opportunity to get a little bit of laser focus on the prototyping aspect of design process and entrepreneurship.”

“If I didn’t have this workshop, I would just be thinking about school work,” Masrour said.

Sabita Dhanpaul, senior and vice president of communications of CEO, discussed why this workshop was beneficial to Iona students.

“It’s good to have a concrete substance that you can view your changes; like you can put an idea down on a piece of paper, but when you’re holding it concretely in your hand it’s such a different experience,” Dhanpaul said. “And like he [Kissner] said, when you’re making something, you’re making it for your users, and we want students to have ideas that not only benefit them but also benefit society and their environment and things like that. So having this workshop was to encourage people because here at CEO, we have many ways in which these students can prototype their ideas.”

Tiara Griffith, senior and vice president of CEO, had similar viewpoints to those of Dhanpaul’s.

“I like that students get the opportunity to test out their ideas without having to launch it fully,” Griffith said. “They can take these mock prototypes and present them to their users and see if they would be interested in it and test it on the basic level before investing a lot of money.”