First Mile Innovations: Conlan Gotzion’s Journey Through Impact and Ingenuity
Conlan Gotzion
University of Wisconsin – Madison, Spring 2024
Team Name: Data Driven Food Resilience
Problem: Digital Data Collection for First-Mile Producers to Enhance Food Traceability
Problem Sponsor: Institute of Food Technologists (IFT)
About Conlan
Conlan graduated from UW Madison in 2024 with degrees in Finance and Computer Science and is currently working as a Full Stack Developer at Integrated Vital Medical Dynamics.
During the Spring 2024 Innovation for Impact course, Conlan’s team worked with the Institute of Food Technologists to enhance supply chain visibility and safeguard public health by reducing foodborne illnesses. They tackled the challenge of how to enable first-mile producers, such as farmers and fishers, to easily collect and share data digitally with their upstream trading partners to meet the requirements of the Food Traceability Rule. The team ultimately developed an app tailored for first-mile producers that simplified the data input process by converting commonly used files such as Excel to the format used by food traceability experts.
What attracted you to the Innovation for Impact course?
As a senior, I felt like I had gained a lot of academic knowledge and internship experience during college, but I lacked hands-on experience in project planning and understanding the actual processes within the industry. This class seemed like a perfect opportunity to gain that experience...
I was excited by the idea of conducting interviews, doing research, and developing a solution that people would actually use, and I didn’t think I’d have the chance to work on something like this again soon after college.
What value did you get from taking the course?
I would highly recommend taking the Innovation for Impact course to other students. It’s different from all other classes and helps you figure out what you want to do in the field. It also provides invaluable practical, real-world experience. It was a great learning opportunity, and I hope others find it valuable too.
What new perspectives did you gain from taking the course?
I’m still interested in computer science and finance, but taking the course opened my eyes to research opportunities and other fields I hadn’t thought of before. It made me think more about understanding the customer’s needs before developing a solution.