MechSE teams take prizes at entrepreneurial competition

Three teams of mechanical engineering and engineering mechanics students won prizes at the Cozad New Venture Competition on March 31 and April 1 for their startup companies and business plans. The winning teams and their projects were: HigherMed, by Daniel Borup (Engineering Mechanics); EscaWheel, by Anando Naqui, Eric Gobst, Jake How, and Chris Delaney (all Mechanical Engineering); and Oso Simple Technologies, by Eduardo Torrealba(Mechanical Engineering), Michael Clemenson (Mechanical Engineering), Brad Sanders (Electrical and Computer Engineering), and Trevor Hutchins (Mechanical Engineering/Aerospace Engineering).

The Cozad New Venture Competition is a contest run by the Technology Entrepreneur Center and the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The competition is designed to encourage students to create new sustainable businesses in the Champaign-Urbana area. Teams create business plans around topics of their choice, and are provided mentors and workshops to help them stabilize their business plans.

HigherMed is a startup company founded by Borup and his partner, Evan File, and won the Adobe Technology Innovation Prize as well as second place overall at the Cozad competition. The project is to design and market a pill-dispensing prescription bottle cap, aimed at consumers with poor dexterity. As the company was in the business planning stage at around the time the contest was announced, the Cozad competition presented itself as a very timely opportunity.

“One of the best parts of Cozad was that every step in the process–the elevator pitch, business plan, and presentation—forced us to think very critically about our business,” Borup said. “It's easy for us to be excited about our own idea, but convincing others forced us to gain a much more detailed understanding of everything that will factor into our potential success.”

The Cozad competition has also provided HigherMed with the opportunity to work with the UIUC College of Law’s Patent Clinic this semester. The team hopes to have its first sales by the end of this year.

EscaWheel is a project intended to provide wheelchair users with a more affordable and reliable way to go up and down stairs. It was one of three winners of the EnterpriseWorks incubator prize at the Cozad competition. EscaWheel was also awarded space in EnterpriseWorks, a business incubator for early-stage tech firms in the Research Park at the university.

Oso Simple Technologies is a service that analyzes the amount of water used on lawns and gardens through wireless moisture monitors, and notifies gardeners in real-time about the water needs of their plants. This is intended to prevent overwatering and reduce wasted water. Oso Simple Technologies was one of two teams that received the prize for Best Mobile Application, sponsored by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).

“Our team gained some valuable insights from the judges at every step in the process,” Torrealba said. “Even though we had presented to some investors before the competition started, we were still able to refine our company strategy and improve the way that we told the judges about our business and the goals that we have for it. It will be exciting to see where Oso Simple Technologies goes next.”

Photo courtesy of the UIUC Technology Entrepreneur Center.