The Mercer Innovation Center will host its first 1 Million Cups lecture Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., featuring Mercer student and entrepreneur Andrew Eck.

The event is free and open to the public, and will take place in the Mercer Innovation Center, located in the former Religious Life Center on the Macon campus.

A national program developed by the Kaufmann Foundation to educate, engage and connect entrepreneurs, 1 Million Cups is based on the notion that entrepreneurs discover solutions and network over a million cups of coffee.

Eck, an electrical engineering student, was the 2015 recipient of the James T. McAfee Jr. Endowed Vision and Leadership Scholarship. In conjunction with his coursework at Mercer, he has completed three semesters of cooperative learning with Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute.

While a student at the University, Eck has started two businesses. Georgia Pallet recycles discarded wooden shipping pallets, turning them into coffee tables, signs and other custom furniture creations. He also launched a sound engineering business that evolved into Corner Concerts, a company that organizes and promotes pop-up concerts in interesting and unexpected venues, such as parking decks, parks, vacant buildings and historic storefronts.

Additionally, Eck co-founded SparkMacon, Macon-Bibb County’s first makerspace, to provide an outlet for local creatives and entrepreneurs through science, technology, engineering, arts and math education.

His newest project is a band incubator that will precede Mercer Music at Capricorn, the University’s planned renovation of Macon’s historic Capricorn Studios. The space will include band practice rooms, a fully functioning studio and an event room aimed at creating more musical art and sustaining the musicians who create that art.

A free, weekly national program developed by the Kaufmann Foundation to education, engage and connect entrepreneurs, 1 Million Cups is based on the notion that entrepreneurs discover solutions and network over a million cups of coffee.