Textbooks continue being a major cost for the school experience, but a California State  College , Long Beach, senior has started a domain which will offer an alternative choice to the present system.  Alexander Santamaria won CSULB’s 2013  Invention  Challenge this year for his site http://www.textbookhouse.com.  According to officers, it’s the first web site that connects college kids so they can trade textbooks with each other.  “One year I was sick and tired of paying high costs at the Waterstone’s and thought there needed to be a better way,” announced Santamaria, who developed the site with Paras Goswami.

“I would see scholars selling books that I required back to the Waterstone’s and purchasing books that I owned. In place of utilising the book shop to get these books, I presumed, ‘Why don’t I make a site that connects scholars together to trade these books and eliminate the necessity to keep purchasing and selling.'” The  Creativity  Challenge is co-sponsored by CSULB’s  Varsity  of Engineering and  University  of Business Administration.  Officers  claimed they see the competition as a technique to engage both schools in a partnership, sometimes with engineers making and planning and business scholars concentrating on financing and promoting.

“Now in its 3rd year, the CSULB  Invention  Challenge has established fantastic relations, from one viewpoint with the investment and business community and on the other with the campus student community,” related Forouzan Golshani, dean of the  Varsity  of Engineering.

Santamaria’s win got him $10,000 and a package of business services to further develop the product and create a business outline to move it forward.

“The  Creativity  Challenge is a terrific way to get scholars to make their ideas happen,” Santamaria related.

The textbookhouse.com site permits scholars to upload books they now own and put in requests for books they are trying to find to find a trading match. The internet site launched for CSULB, and Santa Clara  School .  Santamaria stated that he plans on investing the money into the product, with internet site upgrades and a mobile application for mobile phones imminent.  He thanked Shellie Hunt a business strategist and writer of the “Success is by Design” series for being his business coach on the project.  He had basically took part the year before, but was eliminated earlier in the competition.  “I made and launched the site in under a year and have gained users who’ve traded books on the site,” he announced.  “I also gave a more convincing display this year and obviously explained the way the business was going to grow in the future.” As for that expansion, Santamaria claimed he is aiming to expand and wanted developers and business scholars to e-mail infotextbookhouse.com if they had an interest in becoming involved with the business.  He is about to graduate with a BSc in operations and supply chain management this could.