Dream Funding

or nearly a decade, the Nifty Idea Fund has driven innovation on Bucknell’s campus. Recipients of the fund’s $500 microgrants gain the financial support to purchase essential supplies and equipment that enable them to transform their imaginative concepts into tangible products.

By collaborating within campus makerspaces with other curious, inventive creators, fund recipients have developed an array of diverse projects — including a Tesla coil device that turns electrical sparks into music, a Bernoulli Blower exhibit for the Lewisburg Children’s Museum, a heated phone attachment that protects devices and extends battery life in extreme cold, and a blockchain board game.

Each project is as unique as the student who dreams it up. Here are three who took their “nifty idea” and ran with it.

Lyric Abdul-Rasheed ’26, a self-described “lip gloss addict,” started Lyric’s Lip Candy as a high school senior. In college, she knew she wanted to major in chemical engineering so she could develop a scientific understanding of how to create best-in-class products. “I don’t just want to make lip gloss,” she says. “I want to know and be able to prove what my product can do to improve my customers’ skin.”

She handles every function of her start-up — from product formulation to marketing to order fulfillment. From her lab space at her Dover, Del., home, she quickly scaled her product line to include lip scrubs and oils. She received a Nifty Idea grant in 2023 and used the funding to purchase high-quality ingredients and new equipment, including a portable dishwasher and a sanitizing LED light box. Both help ensure that every step of her process is germ-free.

But the added equipment created a need for more space.

Fortunately, she knew where to turn. “The connections I have made at Bucknell have helped me make tremendous progress in my short time here,” says Abdul-Rasheed. “And the Nifty Idea Fund provided the gateway to expand my business.”

She leveraged the support of Bucknell’s Small Business Development Center. During the fall 2023 semester, Abdul-Rasheed worked through the lengthy process to become the first student to hold office space in their StartUp Lewisburg business incubator. “There were weeks of preparation and meetings,” she says. “And I had to satisfy legal requirements to gain this opportunity, including forming an LLC.” In January 2024, she formally moved her operation to downtown Lewisburg.

In the classroom, Abdul-Rasheed is connecting the dots between her product and its underlying scientific properties. “I understand the chemical breakdowns and cell structures that are included in the data sheets for the ingredients I use in my lip gloss,” she says. “They’re not random compounds anymore — I can identify what I’m looking at.”

Abdul-Rasheed says she feels confident that the combination of her academic coursework and Bucknell’s expanding entrepreneurial resources will ensure her future success. (Learn about the new Perricelli-Gegnas Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation on P. 20.)

“I came to Bucknell because I knew it had a strong chemical engineering program,” she says. “But the reality is that I’m getting so much more than the foundational chemical knowledge. I’m building my entire business. It’s going to be incredible.”

Guitarists use pedals to help them produce different sound effects, such as distortion, delay, reverb or wah-wah. Using multiple pedals can expand creative expression, allowing for more creativity and versatility in producing a uniquely customized sound — something that appealed to Thomas Smith ’23.

“Ever since I started playing at age 12, I’ve been fascinated by the diverse range of sounds and effects that can be achieved through different pedals,” he says.

When he arrived at Bucknell, the computer engineering major started a band and began conceiving what would become a nifty idea. Could he engineer a singular, complex, programmable guitar pedal that would encompass the functionalities of six individual pedals?

Smith used Nifty Idea funding to build a pedal board with six knobs, four switches and two footswitches. Then he programmed an interface that allows him to readily switch between different configurations. His single pedal enables a guitarist to combine effects, offering a multitude of options for sound shaping and personalization while eliminating the need for multiple pedals.

“The Nifty Idea Fund provided me with a unique opportunity,” Smith says. “I never thought I would be able to fully combine my passion for music with my electrical engineering and computer programming skills.”

Luke Giugliano ’17 spent nearly a year living off-grid in a tiny home he designed and built with support from the Nifty Idea Fund.

The mechanical engineering major applied his knowledge of solar electrical systems, plumbing and carpentry to build the seven-by-14-foot home on wheels during his senior year at Bucknell. He used a 750-watt solar system to power the house, a 33-gallon tank to generate fresh water for a full-size shower and double-basin sink, and a propane tank to fuel the heating system and stove. The house’s amenities included a queen-size bed, rooftop “deck,” sky light and composting toilet. “In decent weather, I could go about 10 days without needing any supplies, and then it was usually just a water refill,” Giugliano says.

After graduating from Bucknell, Giugliano drove his house from Pennsylvania to Colorado, where he lived in the wilderness on forest service roads. When his now-wife Chrissy Bendzinski ’18 moved west to join him, the couple realized they needed more space and sold the home.

“It was so satisfying to be able to take the house on adventures through the Colorado mountains,” he says. “I used what I gained at Bucknell to build something self-sustaining. It was a huge success.”