The 23rd annual IVCC MIMIC Fair will be from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 18 in the cafeteria, with an outdoor theme.

MIMIC (Making Industry Meaningful in College) was created by a plethora of teachers after getting a small grant, according to Dorene Data, CAD teacher and one of the founders of MIMIC.

“MIMIC is where a group of students from not only CAD, but accounting and marketing would come together and make companies to design, market, and sell their product,” said Data.

The MIMIC fair will be where they sell those products.

Products available that day will include a patented can holder that keeps the can cold, LED bag board with LED bags, Star Wars-themed indoor and outdoor chess pieces and board, a torch that spins like a tornado and a lamp that is also a Bluetooth speaker—the light changes color and is in sync with the music.

The bag boards were designed by Mike Straith and Matt Kamlin. Kamlin stated that they have been working on the product for about five to six months. However, these boards do more than just light up.

“Our boards are Bluetooth enabled, sound active, and have full RGB ability,” said Kamlin.

The RGB (red, green, blue)ability makes the boards light up in any color, which can be controlled by a smartphone.

“The idea has been around before, but we just made it a whole lot better,” Kamlin said.

It takes a lot of creativity to design these products.

The Torch-nado, designed by Lewis Habben, Danielle Hawkins, and Jade Goff, is a tabletop fireplace that spins similarly to a tornado.

“It utilizes physics to create a tornado of fire,” said Hawkins.

The idea for the Torch-nado came from Habben, whom Hawkins said has had “unlimited creativity” during the process.

It is safe to burn both inside and outside because it uses solid fuel sterno to create the fire. Habben also floated the idea of “color changing” tornadoes in future designs

While most groups said they are finished designing products, they still have work to do. Most of the work that is left will consist of reproduction, marketing and design reports.

When all is said and done, Data said depending on profit, they will throw a dinner for the groups.

She is expecting big things from this group.

“The more profits they make, the better the dinner,” she said.

For more information about the MIMIC fair or the program in general, contact Data at [email protected], Jim Gibson at [email protected], or Rick Serafini at [email protected]. Gibson and Serafini represent electronics and accounting.