EDITORIAL: MSU students innovation program tops
Apr. 17—Thumbs up to Minnesota State University's Big Ideas Challenge competition, in which for student entrepreneurs present plans for startup businesses and compete for prize money.
Entrants can win $2,000 to $7,000 to make their business idea a reality. The competition is keen, and several of the winning ideas have over the years turned into real businesses that employ hundreds of people.
This year's winning entry went to Tocco VR and Jim Boyd, an engineering student at MSU, who developed a virtual reality experience that replicates lab work at MSU. It allows students, many of who are distance learning, to participate in labs that replicate the hands-on experience.
Second place went to a group of students who developed "Hearing Glasses" that allow people who are hard of hearing to hear conversations near them that then appear as text on their glasses. The team of Abdelrahman Elkenawy, Kaitlin Gloege and Alex Shepherd won a $2,000 prize and an additional $3,000 prize for being first in the high-tech division.
The program is inspiring and showcases the talents of young people who are committed to making our world a better place. It's another one of those gems to the community provided by a first-class university.
Abusing journalists
Thumbs down to the "refined" "processing" of reporters and camera people covering this week's unrest in Brooklyn Center in the nights since the police killing of Daunte Wright.
Those are the words State Patrol Col. Matt Langer used to describe blocking in journalists, forcing them to their knees with their hands up, photographing their credentials and, in some cases, scattering their gear. A Star Tribune photographer has described on Twitter getting blindsided with pepper spray while documenting the events.
"We want the media there covering these events," Langer insisted at a press briefing. The authorities' actions suggest that what they really want is to intimidate protesters and observers alike and cow them into submission.
Closure to be felt
Thumbs down to the loss at the end of this month of a longtime thrift store that served the community in a number of ways.
The MRCI Thrift Shop not only provided shoppers with clean, well-organized secondhand goods, but sales at the shop supported the mission of MRCI of providing employment and day services for people with disabilities.
The loss of revenue in a community that now has numerous thrift stores competing, a drop in the number of older volunteers (especially during the pandemic) and the inability to retain staff in a brisk labor market means the closure was in the cards.
Nevertheless, the Thrift Shop, a local fixture since 1964, will be missed by many — those looking for gems at the store and those discovering treasures they didn't know they needed until they walked into the shop.
Neighborhood park
Thumbs up to the city of Mankato for moving quickly to develop a playground in the rapidly growing residential development near Prairie Winds Middle School.
The city's newest subdivisions are going up quickly east of Highway 22, and the need for a playground on that side of the high-traffic four-lane highway has become more pressing.
City staff prepared plans for a 7.5 acre parcel, and the City Council this week approved the project. The city hopes to have the park open by the end of June.
The $331,000 project will include a picnic shelter, a half-court basketball court, nearly a half-mile of paved and wood-chip trails, and playground equipment. Existing woodlands and grasslands will be left largely natural.
