Last fall, Management Science and Engineering Prof. Ashish Goel charged the students in his Internet commerce course with a task that still eludes Silicon Valley elites: to create a profitable Internet-based business.

Giving students 10 weeks to do what business leaders spend years pursuing, Goel did not allow much time for the groups to create their company’s Web site, advertise to potential customers and sell their product or service. Students’ grades were largely based on the revenues and profits their companies made and the business strategies they crafted.

Since groups could only sink $250 into their company — and much of that into advertising — they could not “make” a product. Instead, groups tried to sell a service or a very cheap product, such as t-shirts.

Tommy Leep, a co-terminal student better known as the Stanford Tree, created with his group Stanfordtree.com, a Web site featuring a periodic blog about the Stanford mascot. At the site, people could read about daily happenings of the Tree and also buy several variations of Stanford Tree t-shirts.

Another group in the class created the business OurShelves.com, which enabled students to buy and sell textbooks with others on campus.

Junior Molly Goldstein, an economics major who worked on the OurShelves.com project, said, “Instead of waiting weeks to get your used textbooks in the mail, all the books on OurShelves.com are just a bike ride away.”

A third group created a site which rated mp3 players. By setting up an Amazon Associates account, the group made a small commission each time someone bought an mp3 player on Amazon after viewing the ratings site.

In addition, Professor Goel instructed the students on many of the technical properties of the Internet.

“The most interesting thing about the class,” Leep said, “was learning that the Google algorithm for search results hinges on non-Euclidean geometry.”