Students offer ideas in Dodge competition

InternView is offering the chance to win $3,000 by answering a question from Dodge.\nThe second annual online contest wants students to tell Dodge how the company can improve its cars.\nTyler Sanchez had a real motivation behind his submission into the InternView competition. \nThe sophomore at Vanderbilt University was the first winner of InternView, a contest that asked college students around the nation how Dodge could improve its vehicles. When Sanchez heard about the contest, he knew he could draw on real-life experience. \n“A week-and-a-half earlier I was in a car accident,” Sanchez said. “(My friend) actually fell asleep with the car going 60. We went off the highway and down into a ditch. It was amazing that nothing happened (to us).”\nSanchez designed a safety feature in the steering wheel that would monitor drivers’ hearts. The device then triggers sound alerts if their heart rate drops too low.\n“I know a lot of people do really long driving trips,” Sanchez said. “I know I do. It basically monitors your heart rate the same way if you were running on a treadmill.”\nSanchez received the first-place prize of $3,000 for his idea and is entering again this year. He has submitted three different solutions on his own, plus one he developed with his friend.\nJennifer Sicard is the chief operating officer and director of the Adlego Project for Sicard and Co. LLC, a managing consultant firm that started InternView. Adlego, Latin for “I choose,” is the name of the campaign that includes InternView and several other collegiate programs. Sicard said Dodge has benefited from the students and Adlego Project.\n“(Dodge was) very, very thrilled this spring because they really do generate a lot ideas,” Sicard said. “We have talked with different companies, but we haven’t solidified any other partnerships.”\nSicard and Co. promotes the Adlego Project mainly through student marketing and business associates, whose job is to get the word out on their own campus. Senior Lisa Mallinger is a marketing associate for the IU campus. Mallinger said the InternView competition lets students challenge themselves.\n“It gives students a chance to build analytical skills. They can take a real-life problem and think about it,” Mallinger said. “If they can put something like that on their resume, that would look really great. That’s pretty significant for a college student.”\nThis year marks the second round for InternView, and Sicard and Co. has made some changes. The top five contestants will get the opportunity to fly to Detroit to present their solutions in person to Dodge executives. Also, contestants can now submit solutions as a team and have four different questions to choose from, instead of just one.\nAs Sanchez waits to see how far his ideas will go this year, he is pondering what to do with his prize money.\n“Unfortunately it’s accumulating interest in my bank account right now,” he laughed. “I’ve really been wanting an iPhone, but I know that’s pretty materialistic.”\nThe deadline for submissions is Feb. 24, but voting for the first-round winners starts Sunday. Students can submit their own solutions and find more information at www.internviewawards.com.