The real world couldn't wait: Outstanding Graduating Senior Robert Mckay

For many students, college is the place where they can prepare for the real world. For information systems major Robert Mckay, the real world couldn’t wait for him to graduate. Mckay, 26, is the information systems Outstanding Graduating Senior for the fall 2011 semester. Although he has yet to pick up his diploma, McKay already has founded one company, been involved at the ground floor of another and has been offered a job with a major corporation.

For many students, college is the place where they can prepare for the real world. For information systems major Robert Mckay, the real world couldn’t wait for him to graduate. Mckay, 26, is the information systems Outstanding Graduating Senior for the fall 2011 semester. Although he has yet to pick up his diploma, McKay already has founded one company, been involved at the ground floor of another and has been offered a job with a major corporation. “Post grad plans are full of opportunities! Currently I have been offered a position as a technical analyst at American Express, after which I plan to attain my master’s in finance,” said Mckay, who will be receiving bachelor’s degrees in computer information systems and supply chain management. “However, the most important plans that I have include another young company that I have gotten involved with known as Patient Forward were I serve in the capacity of customer service manager.” Entrepreneurial spirit Mckay said Patient Forward’s patent-pending technology to implement the wellness cycle  will offer students and their families a way to conveniently see a doctor without leaving work or school. Patients will be able to visit their physicians online at home or at any private location with access to a computer and a webcam. Patients not only will be able to visit their family doctors, with Patient Forward they also will have access to a variety of specialists. Patient Forward also includes a preventative care component. “Students seeking to reduce stress and improve wellness will enjoy complimentary online health seminars, as well as access to live online Pilates, yoga and tai chi at a 50 percent savings over traditional gyms,” Mckay said. “Best of all, members enjoy one annual complimentary lesson. If desired, individualized instruction can also be scheduled. Even those expanding their families can partake in online Lamaze.” Mckay's first entrepreneurial venture, ForceFinder, continues to grow. Created as part of a classroom project, ForceFinder’s concept is simple — to track and report — but its applications are far-reaching. Mckay said the ForceFinder technology has the potential to track anything from trucks, phones and people to cars and even units of soldiers. “The young business that I began in (IS professor) Asim Roy’s class in 2009 has steadily moved from an idea, into a prototype, into an actuality,” Mckay said. “Currently ForceFinder has its trackers placed in a Food City known as store 96. The current testing trial has proved successful and is progressing in a positive direction.” The class project that brought about ForceFinder challenged students to create a viable business solution using Salesforce.com Cloud technology in combination with the expertise and talents they had on hand. Mckay and his team used MySQL and PHP, along with other web-based languages and Java-based recycled cell phones, to create a system that tracks shopping carts and retrieves them. “That not only helps the businesses involved by saving them thousands of dollars, it also helps to clean up our community,” Mckay said. Supporting talented students The ForceFinder project was funded by a grant from Arizona State University’s Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative. The initiative provides emerging student entrepreneurs with an opportunity to leverage their business skills and prepare a proposal that competes for venture capital funding. “The ForceFinder project exemplifies Arizona State University’s design principles related to community outreach and it shows the importance of investigating local solutions with global implications,” said Michael Goul, department chairman and professor of information systems. “It also proves how a dual degree in IS and supply chain management prepares students to tackle some difficult problems that uniquely combine problem-solving skills taught in the two fields. “Leveraging knowledge gained in coursework in real-world contexts represents one of the most intensive and immersive learning pedagogies in a university’s toolkit,” Goul continued. “Mckay and (his) team rose to the challenge; a CEO from a cart manufacturing company is now looking at buying the intellectual property rights associated with ForceFinder.” Goul has been so impressed by Mckay and his entrepreneurial efforts that he nominated the student for ASU’s overall Outstanding Graduating Senior. “Robert’s 3.66 GPA demonstrates his academic excellence, and his impressive and unprecedented entrepreneurial ventures with ForceFinder and other projects he has been involved in (are) proof of a scholar who can apply what he learns — and then go the extra mile,” Goul wrote in his letter nominating Mckay for OGS. “That’s the type of student who should be recognized … especially in the context of this down business cycle where the only way to economic recovery is through the likes of budding entrepreneurs like Mckay who can invent the new business opportunities the world so desperately needs.” Since arriving at ASU, Mckay has won the Edson Student Entrepreneur award, the Innovation Challenge award, the Target DC Challenge, the Sales Force Challenge and the Avnet Tech Games. Mckay also won honorable mention in the Henkel Challenge and has made the Dean’s List. For Mckay, however, true success comes from also serving the community. He has given back to the community by acting as a Cub master for a group of Cub Scouts. “Setting an example for the boys and teaching them an appreciation for this great nation has been a life-learning opportunity,” he said. Mckay also spent two years as a peer facilitator. He said the experience allowed him to give his first-year student peers an opportunity he never had — a student’s view of ASU school life and “how best to survive it.” His strong sense of community also led to another success in the classroom. While taking a Cisco class, Mckay and his classmates were assigned a project that would expand their knowledge and benefit the community. Mckay convinced a bank that was having its systems upgraded to donate the hardware to a local school. “I in turn took these systems, learned the fundamentals of Linux and employed my Cisco networking skills to connect the systems and created a data processing center for the school,” he said. Learning that Goul had nominated him for OGS, Mckay said he was surprised and humbled. “I have been working hard since I arrived at ASU, but to think that I would be nominated for such an award was quite an honor,” he said. “I know many of my peers who work harder, are much more intelligent and much more gifted than myself. The only thing that I do differently that I can honestly define is my entrepreneurship streak, which seems to have really manifested itself since my arrival at ASU.” — Photo by Andrew Farquhar