麻豆传媒映画

When business student Roberto Sanchez walked into his first entrepreneurship class at 麻豆传媒映画, MGT 358 taught by David Turner, he had no idea he鈥檇 soon be leading a startup. The assignment was simple: identify a real problem AI could solve. Sanchez and his classmates, Nathan Patel and Gavin Chesen, immediately thought of their experiences as transfer students struggling to get timely, personalized academic advising.

Their idea: Academic Advisor AI, a tool that could analyze a student's transcript and degree plan to recommend the most efficient course path forward.

Their concept earned them a spot in the Spring 2025 cohort of 麻豆传媒映画鈥檚 ZIP Launchpad, officially known as the Zahn Innovation Platform Launchpad. Open to all 麻豆传媒映画 students, faculty, and staff, ZIP Launchpad helps teams build real businesses by providing resources such as legal support and funding opportunities. 

After a semester of research and validation work, the Academic Advisor AI team gained access to one of the most valuable resources offered in the Launchpad: the H.G. Fenton Company Idea Lab, a makerspace led by manager Cameron Brock. Staffed with student interns and equipped with 3D printers, prototyping tools, and design software, the lab is a creative engine for turning concepts into reality.

Sanchez pitched his vision to Brock at a ZIP Launchpad bootcamp 鈥� a four-hour event where students form teams, identify problems, design solutions, and often make a sale by the end of the day. 

Sanchez wanted to build a prototype but didn鈥檛 know how since he had no coding experience. In just 35 minutes at the Idea Lab, Brock and Sanchez built a functional app using ChatGPT to define product logic and V0.dev to generate code.

鈥淭his wasn鈥檛 just a demo. It was a functional MVP [Minimum Viable Product], ready to test, built in under an hour, with zero cost,鈥� Brock shared. What used to take weeks of planning, coding, and funding can now be done in under an hour by leveraging AI tools even by someone without technical experience. 

The shift Brock describes isn鈥檛 just technical, it鈥檚 philosophical. Coming from a design thinking background, he explained, prototyping used to mean sketching ideas on paper after conducting empathy research. But now, the process feels like it鈥檚 being rewritten. 鈥淚nstead of doing empathy research first and then building a prototype,鈥� he said, 鈥渨hat if you could do it all at once?鈥� In this new model, the act of building becomes a form of inquiry, not just a step that follows research, but something that is research.

With tools like ChatGPT and V0.dev, students can skip weeks of wireframes and planning. Instead, they build quickly, test instantly, and improve with feedback from customers - often within the same day.

Patel added, 鈥淣ow that we had a working version, it was way easier to build on it. The Idea Lab made it feel like we weren鈥檛 just students with an idea, we were founders building a real product.鈥� 

It was during this period of momentum that the team reflected on the class where it all started. Shortly after that first session, they were stunned to learn that their MGT 358 instructor Turner had passed away. In his honor, they named the core AI agent powering their product Turner 2.0. 鈥淗e inspired this project,鈥� Sanchez said. 鈥淲e wanted to carry his legacy forward by building something that helps other students navigate college more easily.鈥�

Now, the Turner 2.0 team is refining the tool, testing with real users, and preparing for future iterations. With the Idea Lab behind them, the path from concept to impact has never been more accessible.

鈥淭echnology like V0.dev is removing barriers,鈥� Brock said. When combining student passion and the right support, startups can be ready to launch faster than ever before. 

For Sanchez, Patel, and Chesen, this is just the beginning. Thanks to the ZIP Launchpad鈥檚 Idea Lab and the memory of a professor who inspired it all, their AI academic counselor is just getting started. If the speed of their first build is any indication, it won鈥檛 be long before they fully launch the Academic Advisor AI.