"Looking for Opportunity"

Opportunity 1 Regulatory Change: Limited RTS Availability Over the Summer Terms:

(a) The source of this information is from the Gainesville Regional Transit System. When the traditional school year is out of session, RTS provides notice in advance on the buses, websites, and in written materials that notifies riders of the new route changes and bus schedules. where you found it (i.e., what the source of the information was that led you to form the belief about an opportunity)

(b) What leads me to believe that this information suggests an opportunity might exist is the consistent complaints I hear from avid bus users about their restricted schedules due to the lack of public transportation provided over the summer.

(c) The prototypical customer ranges from the summer-enrolled student to the bus-dependent Gainesville resident.

(d) The opportunity is easy to exploit for taxi services or companies such as Lyft or Uber, since during certain hours and to and from certain locations, these services become the only options for transportation. Although, I am unsure of the opportunity available to convince those presiding over the service regulations of RTS. This could also be a very great opportunity to establish a city bike share system, as Gainesville is currently rated highly as a bike friendly community.

(e) My first year here in Gainesville, I was solely dependent on the RTS busses for all of my transportation, to and from the grocery store, work, and social invitations. I have also lived in locations where bus systems were limited but there were other forms of transportation, such as subways and bike share systems. I believe that this dependency on the bus system in addition to my knowledge and experience with other transit systems fostered my belief for opportunity. I am very affected by the limited summer provisions of RTS busses, and I’ve met many others at the bus stops that have sympathized with me as well. This is a very personal issue for many residents in Gainesville, and surely my conversations with others contributed to the realization of this need.



Opportunity 2 Regulatory Change: Emission Regulations in California:

(a) This was brought to light during a conversation with an individual who personally experienced, at a large expense, coming face to face with emission regulations while getting his automobile serviced in California.

(b) I am lead to believe this information suggests an opportunity may exist for automobile companies to create parts that are more emission friendly and catalyze a competitive green movement in the automobile industry as regulations for emissions spread nationwide and possibly globally.

(c) The prototypical customer for the opportunity would be automobile companies or private engineering firms that would create cost efficient and emission efficient parts to sell to the automobile industry. The prototypical customer for the product would of course be the automobile owners which reside in states and territories with emissions regulations.

(d) The automobile industry is highly privatized and I don’t believe that this opportunity would be easy to exploit unless one with the wish to pursue this endeavor was closely involved with the companies decisions regarding budgets and new projects. Ultimately, I don’t believe there is enough initiative for an auto company to create model specific products to be sold which are emission efficient and also cheaper replacement parts in comparison to other auto companies, since regulations imposed are only affecting their customers in specific regions affected by these laws. Until the emissions regulation spreads across the nation, I don’t believe there will be enough momentum from the market to seek emission efficient cars, and therefore not enough reason for a company to create such products and parts.

(e) I came across this opportunity in passing conversation with a colleague who experienced it on the off chance that he had to have his vehicle serviced due to emergency during his visit in California. I had never been affected by or heard of these emission regulations until this moment in time. Really, what this brought to my perspective was a true need to expand that regulation across the nation, as I am adamant about palliating the effects of global warming and finding sustainable solutions. Being an engineer, I see this as an opportunity to create parts for cars which fit these emission standards but also serve to be more affordable and marketable to the average customer, and give the industry a run for its money and a drive to make their cars more earth-compatible.



Opportunity 3 Economic Trend: Rising rates for leases and Dramatic Discounts for Subleases

(a) I am a member of the UF Free and For Sale group on Facebook, and I am constantly receiving notifications of sublease listings amongst other various for sale items. Furthermore I have experience with lease hunting and from my own experience alongside accounts from friends have fallen victim to rising lease rates with passing time.

(b) This information proves as a great opportunity for the development of a mobile app. I think a platform can be created specifically for student subleasing options in the Gainesville area, allowing students to submit their subleases, as well as search for available leases that fit their criteria and get directly in contact with individuals this way. This could also be used as a venue for local apartment complexes to notify students in the area of leasing specials and openings for term-specific leases as they become available.

(c) The prototypical customer is a student enrolled in college looking for short term leases to pick up.

(d) This opportunity is relatively easy to exploit. All you need is to create a user friendly application and market it across campus and through social platforms that are similar, such as the UF Free and for Sale Page.

As a member of the UF Free and For Sale group on Facebook, an avid sublease hunter, and a past victim of last minute lease signing with an off campus apartment complex, I’ve had plenty of experience (and difficulty) hunting through student forums for a lease that fits within my budget.



Opportunity 4 Economic Trend: The Price of Solar Cells is dropping exponentially

(a) I found an article in Forbes online journal that discusses the revolution of solar energy, written by Peter Diamandis. Diamandis discusses the exponential drop of the price of solar cells and the rapid improvement of energy storing mechanisms.

(b) The price of solar panels has plummeted from $76 per watt in 1977 to less than $0.36 per watt today. This is a great opportunity to make aggressive advancements of solar technologies such as solar roadways and electric vehicles.

(c) Energy companies such as General Electric can lead the shift toward green energy and would serve as the prototypical customer for the cutting edge of technology. I don’t think we would be limited to expanding solar technologies at all to large companies, and surely with this price small businesses and individuals could serve as viable prototypical customers.

(d) There have already been advancements for solar technologies and I believe the opportunity is more than available to exploit, it may be the most possible opportunity in this blog yet.

(e) I was very sensitive to the opportunity for expansion in solar technology due to my background as a research assistant for the Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure. Last summer I worked closely with Dr. Fazil Najafi at the University of Florida to publish several journal articles for the American Society of Civil Engineers which were focused on global warming and solar roadways and technology.