Business Idea Competition Winners Announced

An alerting system that enables hearing-impaired students to more easily participate in sports and a metering system that manages the exchange of power between an electric vehicle’s batteries and the power grid were the judges’ top picks in the first University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) Business Idea Competition.

The UT Dallas Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE) sponsored the contest, which drew 89 entrants organized into 37 teams. They vied for $39,000 in cash prizes awarded for imaginative and promising new ideas.

Teams competed in two categories: graduate and undergraduate. Reviewers judged submissions on the basis of originality, market opportunity, value proposition, competitive advantage and feasibility. The undergraduate competition was open to UT Dallas students only. In the graduate division, at least two members of a team had to be UT Dallas students.

Twenty-four semifinalist teams presented their business plans to judges November 9. Eight teams moved on to final rounds, and winners were announced the same day.

“The quality of the business ideas was very impressive. Many of the teams had sound ideas that showed commercial promise,” said IIE Executive Director Joseph C. Picken, Ph.D.

First place and $10,000 went to MBA students Timothy Gutschlag and Jonathan Hoak and Richardson, Texas, eighth-grader Celia Beron and her father, Kurt J. Beron, a faculty member in the UT Dallas School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences. The team proposed “Ref for the Deaf,” a notification and alerting system that enables hearing-impaired students to more safely participate in sports activities.

Second place and $5,000 were awarded to MBA students Sriram Jayaram and Ritesh Shah for creating “Hara Bhara,” environmentally friendly tableware made of leaves. Hara Bhara—which means “Go Green” in Hindi—also won two $1,000 prizes for “Best Business Idea” and “Best Presentation.”

Third place and $2,500 went to MBA students Samuel Patrick Acosta Jr., Travis Sanderfer and Lakshmi Venkateshkumar for developing “Trio – Body Shop,” an interactive storefront where children can build, modify, customize and test their own radio-controlled car or truck.

First place and $10,000 were awarded to management students Stephen Dunlap and Jacqueline Frances Timte, and management and arts and technology student William Bennett Morrow for their “Green Grid” concept. Green Grid is an electricity broker that provides meters for electric vehicles. The meters allow them to charge their batteries from ordinary electric outlets during off-peak hours and sell excess power back to the electric utility during peak hours. Green Grid creators also won a $1,000 “Best Business Idea” prize.

Second place and $5,000 went to management students Josh Berry and Robert McDonald for creating “CommuniTrain,”a Web-based system that provides tutors and trainers with the means to create, market and deliver training materials. The team also won a $1,000 “Best Presentation” prize.

Third place and $2,500 were awarded to management students Samuel Adam Spiegel and Bo Bao for “Myartwork.com,” an online gallery and social networking site for the artistic community.

Funding for the prizes was provided by Sevin Rosen Funds, Hunt Ventures, Trailblazer Capital, Deloitte, Wischmeyer Benefit Partners, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, ON Search Partners, Airband Communications, Inc.; Ceterus Networks, InnerWireless and Wayport, Inc.

Open to all UT Dallas students, the IIE competition was designed to stimulate interest in innovation and entrepreneurship across the university. Dr. Picken said plans for the next competition will be announced in the spring of 2008.

For more information about IIE, please visit http://innovation.utdallas.edu.

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