Northeastern students are known for their remarkable ideas, but outside of the classroom it can be challenging to scramble for resources to bring their ideas to fruition. Based on his own experiences as a student at the Khoury College of Computer Sciences, alumnus Chris Jelly (BSCS ’14) recognized the need for a dedicated fund to support students’ self-directed projects.

With this need in mind, Jelly created the Jelly Incubation Fund for Khoury College in 2017 with a $25,000 donation. He has characterized the fund’s purpose as “no-strings-attached cash grants to students with unique, self-directed ideas that are related to computer science in some way.” He views the fund as a conduit for compelling student ideas and projects.

Back when he was an undergraduate, Northeastern had funding opportunities for students outside of the classroom, such as IDEA and the Provost’s Award, but nothing that worked specifically the way the Jelly Fund works. “Lots of students want to build their own product or conduct research, so I wanted to create a fund that would be all-encompassing,” Jelly explained.

Lots of students want to build their own product or conduct research, so I wanted to create a fund that would be all-encompassing

The fund is open to full-time Khoury College undergraduate students. In their proposals, which are assessed on the scope of the proposed idea and its relevance to both the College and the student applicants, they provide an outline of their project, including a budget, timeline, and a defined goal. Expenses typically covered by the fund include supplies, equipment, lab space, labor costs, or personal remuneration.

Collaborations with the Khoury College major gifts team and central university advancement, along with donations from parents, staff, and alumni of Northeastern, helped the Jelly Fund to award over $20,000 in project money in 2020 alone. Jelly also reached out and developed a partnership with Amazon’s Web Services (AWS) so that each grantee automatically receives an additional $5,000 in AWS credits via AWS Activate. These credits can be used for web services from infrastructure technologies like computing, storage, and databases–to emerging technologies, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, data lakes and analytics, and the Internet of Things.

Jelly is involved in the selection of recipients of the Jelly Fund, and he serves on the selection committee along with faculty, staff, and alumni. He credits Doreen Hodgkin, former associate dean of Khoury College, with the idea of having students apply to the fund instead of him personally selecting specific projects.

One of the many fund recipients is Code4Community, a student-run organization dedicated to providing custom software solutions to local non-profits at no cost to them. The club partners with organizations needing software to increase their efficiency, scope, and ultimately their impact. (To learn more about Code4Community, go to c4cneu.com.)

Former club president, data science major Floris Dobber, reported that Code4Community is immensely grateful for the financial support they’ve received. “The Jelly Fund donation has made it possible for us to provide our services to our partners at no cost. Their donation, and the associated AWS credits, covers all our development costs and allows us to use industry standard development environments,” he said.

Preston Rakovsky, a computer science and business major and another Jelly Fund recipient, has created an iOS app called “Food Flock,” which seeks to solve the age-old problem of where to go out to eat. “Users can swipe through a collection of these cards with their partner, until all individuals swipe right, or ‘match’, on the same restaurant,” Rakovsky explained. “Because of the Jelly Fund, we were able to host our app on cloud resources, purchase design assets and, once we go live, we will be able to use the remaining funding to market and advertise our app on various social media platforms.”

Student recipients of the funding are unanimously grateful to Chris Jelly and the Jelly Fund team. Khoury College leadership is grateful, too, for how the grants help bring student ideas to life.

“The Jelly Fund has made it possible to fuel our students’ entrepreneurial spirit and creativity while supporting their experiential learning goals and preparing them for the world of work. Khoury College and the students are grateful for Chris Jelly’s generosity and his ongoing support of our students,” said Ben Hescott, Khoury College teaching professor and senior associate dean of undergraduate academic programs and student experience. Jelly is the Head of Software Engineering at Vestaboard, the owner of Jelly Consulting where he advises startups on product and engineering strategies, as well as a Founding Engineer at MirrorTab.