AJ Hanus, senior in computer engineering, grew up playing hockey in the winters and sailing in the summers at his home in Clear Lake, Iowa. When it came time to choose a college, Iowa State University was the perfect fit. "My entire family has deep roots at Iowa State, and I knew I wanted to be an engineer so this school was the ideal choice," relates Hanus. Making the most of his time at ISU, Hanus is a member of the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity, Sailing Club, suicide prevention organization, and DubH, ISU's hip-hop club. 

Hanus also joined the Start Something College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) student incubator program last fall semester. "I joined the program for the incredible contacts I received from Dave Krog and Joe Riley. They are great at helping me in every way they can and have directed me towards other experts in the field when they could," he explains. His current project, CalcHub, is being developed to improve online math education. "The e-learning industry is growing at an alarming rate and much of the technology is lagging behind," elaborates Hanus. CalcHub's mission is to simplify the inputting and online sharing of math information.

Hanus has seen progress within his business since joining the student incubator program. "During my time with Start Something CALS, I have worked hard to refine the best place that our product fits. The team plans to look to current textbook publishers to help improve their online textbooks as many of the companies are switching over to purely online textbooks," he explains. Looking to the future, Hanus plans to utilize the resources he has gained to locate funding and build CalcHub into the leading source for all online math calculations. 

In the past, Hanus has interned for a startup in San Francisco, Garmin, the Spire REU program, and Boeing. He also spent a semester abroad studying in Hong Kong, China. After graduation, Hanus plans to continue working on CalcHub.

We wish him the best of luck as graduation approaches and he continues to build his business!