Last May, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD student John Rattray created Aura Spark, a wearable technology that aims to encourage human interaction. Almost a year later, Rattray has been given a fantastic opportunity to take the business that he has built around his creation to the next level.
Aura Spark is a bracelet that features a light display that changes color based on data delivered by smartphone and in response to other bracelets nearby, helping link people with common interests, experiences, and tastes by prompting them to have conversations.
Back in February, Rattray took Aura Spark to the AlphaLab Hardware Cup pitch competition in Pittsburgh. Rattray did not win like he did recently as Johns Hopkins University’s representative at the DMV Top 150 Student Entrepreneurs Pitch, but the judges were so impressed that they invited him to join AlphaLab’s Gear Incubator cohort for the next six months. After serious consideration, Rattray decided to temporarily take a break from campus life to pursue his company full time in Pittsburgh as part of the upcoming cohort cycle.
“The Alpha Lab Gear Program will give me access to areas where I will be able to further develop the product in terms of adding more features and updating the current design that I have,” said Rattray, whose stint in Pittsburgh began April 8. “They also have a wide array of connections with startups in that area, as well as other organizations that could be interested in partnerships or using my product. I’m hoping that by talking with these different people and doing research on the market that I’ll be able to flesh out an extended business plan.”
Though Rattray envisions Aura Spark eventually being used during a variety of events, he thinks his product could be particularly useful in breaking the ice between new students at college orientation events. Last fall, the device made its debut at the ECE fall freshman orientation after Rattray’s PI and ECE Department Chair Ralph Etienne-Cummings agreed it would add excitement to the event and would get students talking to one another. Rattray hopes to have all of Aura Spark’s new features ready for the fall so that multiple universities will be able to use it, too.
Rattray credits the Whiting School’s entrepreneurial culture, along with the support of Etienne-Cummings, and the resources of Johns Hopkins, with much of his success so far. Working through FastForward U, he says, provided him with information and insights into starting his company, Sparkwear. He says he also relied heavily on the various tools at the Digital Media Center during the early stages of his work.
“One thing I am good at is fully utilizing resources, no matter where I go,” Rattray said. “The resources that Johns Hopkins has offered to me that I have been able to utilize have been profoundly helpful in the process of taking the idea I had to a physical product.”