Cameron Schiller ’14

Your exploratory, innovative and inquisitive mind has taken you far in the robotics world through hands on experience, so how did the concept of Prova Backpacks come about?
“While there are many high-end backpacks available, there are few premium options designed specifically for students. Some companies build really quality bags, but they’re designed for hiking or backpacking, so the function of the backpack is geared toward that. My business partner and I thought, ‘hey, there’s a gap in the market here! So we used our knowledge of forces, vectors, material strength and an engineering to help develop Prova Backpacks.”

Both you and your business partner implemented multiple innovative qualities about your backpack, tell me about your favorite?
“Our backpack opens on the side … what that allows for is when students get into the classroom, you don’t even have to take the backpack off to get to your books, you can put one strap on, swing it around your hip, unzip one side and you have complete access to all your books and they are right side up, just like the way you pull a book out of a shelf in the library.”

Prova backpacks, very original, tell me about where and how that name came about?
We tossed around a whole bunch of ideas (for names), and initially one stuck which was Prova … it’s actually Italian for ‘to try’ or ‘to test.’ We’re trying our first company here, and that’s the whole idea behind Prova.”