From Monday, Oct. 26 to Friday, Oct. 30, Seattle was busting at the seams with entrepreneurs and startup advocates heading to events around the city. The Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship partnered with Startup Hall to offer a special edition of Startup Hall’s monthly breakfast networking event Waffle Wednesday. The Buerk Center also hosted two panels: Getting the Most Out of an Intern(ship) and How to Connect with UW Student Talent.

Getting the Most Out of an Internship featured a panel of startup founders and startup interns and was hosted by Leslie Mabry, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Programs at the Buerk Center.

Panelists included Joel Carben, CEO of IdealSeat; current intern at IdealSeat, student at the University of Washington and professional baseball player Andrew Ely; senior undergraduate Foster School student Madeline Down;  Foster School MBA candidate Sean Cappello; UW student and Computing Kids Seattle intern Katie Ducich; and founder and CEO of Computing Kids Seattle Ritu Bahl.

The panel highlighted how to best work with interns (as an employer) and how to get the most out of an internship as an intern.

Leslie Mabry: If you could give one piece of advice to this audience, what would it be?

Andrew Ely: Seek out something you’re interested in, not something just based on what you’re studying.

Joel Carben: Be strategic. A lot of folks here are in school right now, thinking about future careers. Do some informational interviews and really try to understand “what does this job or career look like? What are the little pieces that I can use as building blocks that I can use to start to build my career?”

Maddie Down: Find value in what you’re doing and always try to add value. Ask “how am I adding value to this? How is this valuable to me?” It’s always important to ask yourself that, because if you’re not finding value or adding value, why are you there?

Sean Cappello: Don’t look at a job posting and tell yourself you’re not qualified for it. Startups tend to value horsepower and drive more than your background. If you can get there in a few weeks, then you’ll be valuable to them because no matter what they need you to do, you can figure it out.

Katie Ducich: Find people to learn from. There are so many resources. Being in college and having mentors available to you is great. Sitting down with them and saying, “I don’t need anything from you, I just want to pick your brain” about things I have no idea how to do – but they’re experts in – is helpful.

Ritu Bahl: I think we’re all saying the same thing. When you first join as an intern, you’re very highly incentivized to be learning. So in that first two weeks, you have a lot of leverage and you should set up one-on-one appointments with every aspect of the business to get that knowledge, because six months later you won’t have that leverage. Sticking to one particular narrow task, which might seem better to do because you need to get a lot done, is not as helpful as getting that 360 degree view.

The post Seattle Startup Week 2015: Getting the Most Out of an Intern(ship) appeared first on Foster Blog.

Ben Hallen

Ben Hallen moves to the front of the classroom in the University of Washington’s PACCAR Hall to welcome 50 faculty members and 37 PhD students to Seattle. For some, it’s their first time in the Pacific Northwest, many flying from around the globe. It’s the 13th year of the West Coast Research Symposium, and Hallen’s participation in the technology entrepreneurship research conference has come full circle.

He’d first attended the conference in 2006 as a PhD student at Stanford University. When he took his first academic position at the University of Maryland, he still participated. When he joined the faculty at the London School of Business, he boarded the long flight. Now an assistant professor of entrepreneurship and strategy at the University of Washington, Hallen is on the faculty team that manages the symposium.

“It’s known as the West Coast Research Symposium, but I attended while I was on faculty in London,” Hallen said. “That tells you of its magnitude. It is the premiere entrepreneurship conference.”

As a student, Hallen was meeting with other researcher faculty from around the globe to talk about his own early-stage research. Now, as a faculty member and one of the event’s coordinators, he helps provide one-on-one expert feedback to participating doctoral candidates.

“I think what really distinguishes WCRS is that there is a West Coast perspective, meaning there’s a real emphasis on getting out there and deeply understanding entrepreneurs,” Hallen said.

Doctoral students and faculty members gather on the first day of the West Coast Research Symposium.

At the September 2015 event, the 21 papers ranged from “Unequal Disadvantage in Female Entrepreneurship” (MIT students Jorge Guzman, Aleksandra Kacpercyzyk and Scott Stern) to “Founder Identity and Firm Flexibility in a Nascent Industry” (London Business School student Tiona Zuzul and Boston College student Mary Tripsas).

Other papers included “Entrepreneurship in Action: Reducing the Uncertainty of Innovation” (University of Alberta’s Vern Glaser and Matthew Grimes) and “Multi-level Contextual Influences on Venture Capital Decision Making” (from University of Lausanne’s Jeffrey Petty, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne’s Marc Gruber, and Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich’s Dietmar Harhoff).

“We strive to present research that’s still in development,” explained Hallen. “What’s very cool from an author’s perspective in that you’re able to present something and get feedback at the stage when feedback is most useful. There are so many rich things that are discussed – in the hallway or at dinner or walking around campus. The novelty of the ideas creates a very exciting conference.”

The West Coast Research Symposium is hosted by the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business’ Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, in partnership with the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the USC Marshall School of Business, University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business, Alberta School of Business’ Technology Commercialization Centre, and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

The post Thirteen years of fresh ideas appeared first on Foster Blog.

Scott and Ally Svenson present in Douglas Forum. Photo courtesy of Samantha Ogle.

In the kickoff of the Straight Talk for Entrepreneurs speaker series, hosted by the Foster School’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, MOD Pizza co-founders Scott and Ally Svenson regaled their unexpected journey to entrepreneurship.

The Svensons, married high school sweethearts who met while students at Seattle-adjacent Bellevue High School, stumbled onto their first new venture — co-founding Seattle Coffee Company in 1994 — after moving to London as fresh college graduates. Surprised by the lack of coffee options beyond instant coffee mixes, the Svensons were compelled to start their own coffee company after failing to convince Starbucks to expand into the UK. Over the next three years, Seattle Coffee Company expanded to 65 company-owned stores. In 1998, Starbucks bought out Seattle Coffee Company and the Svensons became executives within the company. Scott became president of Starbucks UK, and subsequently Starbucks Europe, while Ally became the director of communications and brand development.

Over the next decade, the Svensons turned their attention to another business — cafe chain Carluccio’s — which they helped develop and launch. Then, after moving back to the United States, they launched MOD Pizza in 2008 after sensing a need for more fast casual dining.

Launching their business as the recession hit sharply impacted their business model, Ally says. The pricing structure, hiring policies and wage structure were all defined by the Svensons sensing a need to provide to those impacted by the recession. The Svensons wanted to price their food at a point where people would feel comfortable buying it and hire people at a more livable wage.

The Svensons highlight social consciousness as a huge pillar of MOD Pizza’s business model and point to being genuine as a major part of any modern brand’s development. They started Seattle Coffee Company as Seattleites in London genuinely wanting good coffee, helped launch Carluccio’s after seeing that its founding family was the “real deal,” and found a need for fast casual pizza after Ally had trouble finding a place she’d want to eat at with their four sons.

For stumbling into entrepreneurship, the Svensons have certainly found their stride after a series of successful businesses.

The Straight Talk for Entrepreneurs series brings prominent entrepreneurs to campus to talk about the real story behind their journey into entrepreneurship, including the good, the bad and the ugly. Stay tuned for more information about upcoming speakers in the quarterly series.

Read coverage of this event from UW student newspaper The Daily here.

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Co-hosted by the Foster School’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship and student club Science & Engineering Business Association (SEBA), the annual Science & Technology Showcase on Jan. 21, 2016, brought student innovators from across campus together in a tradeshow-style competition. Student innovators gave 60-second pitches to a panel of judges — Seattle-area entrepreneurs and investors — as well as talking with them one-on-one to answer questions. These students’ expertise ranged from biomedical engineering to Human Centered Design and Engineering.

Prizes totaling $2,300 were distributed to eight of the 19 teams who competed in the showcase.

$1,000 Grand Prize, sponsored by WTIA: Z-ion+ Technologies, from Marvin Mecwan, Ruying Chen and Marleny Santos
Z-ion+ Technologies tackles End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) by prolonging the life of all implant hematology and cardiovascular related devices using gas plasma coating technology. The coating can be applied to vascular grafts and prevent proteins from sticking the graft surface, preventing clots. Hemodialysis treatment, including vascular access or AV grafts, costs an average of $89,000 per patient annually in the United States. In 2015, 650,000 patients were treated for ESRD and nearly 400,000 of those patients were treated with hemodialysis. Currently, 50 percent of all AV grafts clot within the first year and 75 percent clot by the second year.

$500 Second Place Prize, sponsored by UW’s Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies: miPS Labs, from Alex Jiao, Ned Whalen, Aakash Sur, Jenna Strully, Rob Thomas
miPS Labs is creating consumer-focused collections and preservation of healthy adult cells for future use in stem cell therapies. miPS Labs focuses on the collection of young, healthy cells that have less of the DNA degeneration and mutation that occurs naturally as we age.

$300 Third Place Prize, sponsored by WRF: Salixae, from Ronald Cuie II
Agrobacterium tumefaciens, a bacterium used to introduce foreign genes into plants’ genomes, can negatively impact plants. The process of foreign gene introduction is also very expensive and time consuming. Salixae provides a new technique to shorten the length of the process from an average of 8-14 months to an average of 6-12 weeks and transform the plant without cell death.

Also awarded were five best idea prizes sponsored by Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.

Best Market Strategy: Fountain of Tooth, from Jason Miklas and Hannele Ruohola-Baker
Fountain of Tooth cryopreserves adult stem cells and uses mesenchymal stem cell banking. The cells are preserved from third molars (“wisdom teeth”) which are usually thrown away as medical waste.

Best Poster: Night Light, from Adam Riddle
Night Light is an augmented crosswalk created with a series of lasers, allowing better visibility for pedestrians at night.

Best Communicator: EMOBIE, from Lindsay Arnold
EMOBIE is an affordable social robot platform for children that facilitates storytelling, calms and comforts, and provides an external feedback loop of emotions for children who have anxiety, autism or other emotional/behavioral needs.

Most Enthusiastic: Eta1, from Ryan Ahearn, Tessa Gome, Leila Asfari and Jack Kamel
Eta1 provides a solution to fuel efficiency needs. The inexpensive and easy-to-implement method, Heat Energy Return (HER), captures wasted heat from an engine’s exhaust and allows vehicles to use less fuel.

Most Innovative: Phase4, from Kurt Kung, Xinying Zeng, Lucas DuSablon, Khang Lee, Dario Toso and Jason Huang
This patented “filterless filter” exploits a process similar to the first step of photosynthesis to split water into two regions: a zone of water pure of suspended particles, salt, heavy metals, bacteria, and toxins, and the excess water. The pure water, called the Exclusion Zone (EZ), is extractable for use as clean potable water.

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John Gabbert, CEO of Pitchbook, addresses the crowd during his Resource Nights lecture.

Foster School alumnus John Gabbert (’96) returned to the University of Washington on Jan. 21 to share his startup story and tackle the topic of business planning through the Startup Resource Nights lecture series.

The CEO of Seattle-based PitchBook, a financial information technology provider offering award-winning data and analysis software, founded his company in 2007.

Today, they have around 1,400 firms as clients, which translates to 7,000 users total. PitchBook was recently ranked as one of Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing private companies — that’s not surprising given that in the seven years since PitchBook launched its software in 2009, PitchBook has grown to more than 400 employees and has a run rate of more than $30 million.

A frequent judge for the Foster School’s UW Business Plan Competition, John Gabbert sees up-and-coming student entrepreneurs pitching incredible innovations regularly. What makes an entrepreneur successful? The drive and determination, he said.

“I think one of the biggest things is just to have grit,” Gabbert said. “You have to absolutely grind. Starting a company, getting it up and going, is really not easy.”

Hosted by the Foster School’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, Startup Resource Nights is a winter quarter lecture series open to the public but centered around the ENTRE 440/540 Business Plan Practicum class. The series takes place in Shansby Auditorium (PACCAR Hall 192) every Thursday from 6-7:50 p.m.

Upcoming speakers include Evergreens Salad CEO Todd Fishman, Liquid Planner’s VP of Marketing Aashish Dhamdhere and DRY Soda’s VP of Marketing BreeAnna Marchitto on Jan. 28’s Marketing in a Competitive Environmental panel.

View the lecture video here.

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Jesse Sheldon, center, is presented his Spokane Valley Entrepreneur of the Year award by Central Valley School District Superintendent Ben Small and Katherine Morgan, CEO/President of the Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Lavin Entrepreneurship Program student Jesse Sheldon was named 2015 Spokane Valley Entrepreneur of the Year by the Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce at the Chamber’s Gem of the Valley Gala on Jan. 22, 2016.

Sheldon, a University of Washington student in his third year of studying communications and entrepreneurship, is the founder and president of Inland NW Baby, Spokane’s only diaper bank. Sheldon founded Inland NW Baby as a ninth grader after realizing how much of an impact clean diaper access has on low-income families. Read Sheldon’s founding story here.

Since then, Inland NW Baby has given 200,000 diapers to families in need, as well as gently used children’s clothing, toys and other equipment. The organization partners with Sweet REpeat Kid’s Resale Boutique, where Sheldon plans to help facilitate a job training program and continue supporting new moms.

“I was so honored to be nominated as a finalist next to two amazing women who have also done amazing things in the business community of Spokane. It’s awesome to see the impact Inland NW Baby has on the Spokane community,” Sheldon said.

Other finalists for the award included Carrie Magruder, who founded the BrickHouse Massage & Coffee Bar in 2004, and Nadine Burgess, who has owned Spokane Gymnastics since 2010.

Jesse Sheldon at the ceremony with his mother, Julie Sheldon, who was integral to Jesse’s ability to start his organization as a ninth grader.

The Lavin Entrepreneurship Program is a highly competitive honors program for undergraduate entrepreneurs of all majors facilitated by the Foster School’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship. The Lavin program connects its students with mentors and job/internship opportunities in the Seattle startup space and provides a community of like-minded peers throughout the three-to-four year program.

Sheldon currently serves on the Lavin program executive board, where he helps plan the MentorConnect lunch program to connect founders and CEOs with young entrepreneurs in the Lavin program.

The post Lavin program student named Entrepreneur of the Year appeared first on Foster Blog.

Robert Moehle and Rahil Jain of Hook give their final pitches to committee members and other prominent members of the Seattle entrepreneurship community.

Since 2010, the Jones + Foster Accelerator has been providing early stage ventures with a six-month runway to accelerated growth. By connecting teams with powerful mentorship and measurable milestones, they quickly move toward accomplishing their startup goals.

Out of the 46 companies admitted into the program, 34 companies have completed the Jones + Foster Accelerator program since it began in 2010. Twenty-nine of them are still in business today, raising millions in funding, becoming household names, forming partnerships with celebrity foundations, and winning prestigious awards. Since the Accelerator program began, $745,000 has been awarded.

Ten organizations were accepted into the 2015 Accelerator and eight completed the program, each receiving up to $25,000 in funding at the end of the program. A total of $170,000 was awarded in follow-up funding to the 2015 teams.

2015 Jones + Foster Accelerator teams

Eldergrow

Orla Concannon (Seattle University Executive MBA in Healthcare Leadership ’15), Ponni Anandakumar (Seattle University Executive MBA in Healthcare Leadership ’15)

Eldergrow provides a therapeutic connection to nature through innovative, indoor gardening products and a wellness program that improve the quality of life for our growing community of elders living in residential and nursing care. During the Accelerator program, Eldergrow’s pilots quickly transitioned to customers with national senior care companies on board.

Hook
Rahil Jain (PhD Electrical Engineering ’17), Robert Moehle (TMMBA ’15), Maxwell Wheeler (Northern Arizona University, BSE Mechanical Engineering ’11)

Hook has leveraged the Jones + Foster Accelerator to achieve its vision of “Making Dumb Devices Smart” in people’s homes, allowing improved convenience, environmental stewardship, and home safety. Hook’s first product enables Smart Home on a Budget, and the company plans follow-on products that also transform connected homes. Through the Accelerator, Hook has been able to begin shipping products to early customers and define strategies to accelerate growth moving forward.

Maple Leaf Photonics
Shon Schmidt (PhD Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering, ’16), Jonas Flueckiger (UBC PhD Engineering)

Maple Leaf Photonics is changing the way silicon photonic devices are tested. Their automated probe station allows designers to spend less time in the lab characterizing their circuits and more time analyzing data and improving their designs. Most importantly, their modular platform leverages existing equipment and accommodates growing needs with minimal investment.

miPS Labs
Alex Jiao (PhD Bioengineering ’16), Jenna Strully (Executive MBA ’15), Ned Whalen (BA Finance ’16), Rob Thomas (MBA ’15)

miPS Labs is now fully operational. They have secured lab space, bought initial equipment and reagents, and validated their prototype using the founders’ cells. miPS Labs has launched a closed beta to interested individuals in the Seattle area and is slowly ramping up processing. miPS Labs will be inviting more and more closed beta participants as they become more efficient at isolating and processing the cells. They are especially proud of the press and interest they have received – they have been featured in a GeekWire piece here and a KOMO News TV spot here. From these two pieces they have received over 400 closed beta applicants and have a backlog of interested customers.

JikoPower
Ryan Ahearn (BS Mechanical Engineering ’16), Aaron Owen (BS Mechanical Engineering ’15), Daniel Parish (BS Mechanical Engineering ’16), Michael Jooste (BA Business Administration and Entrepreneurship ’16), Marene Wiley (Political Science: Political Economy and Entrepreneurship ’16)

Globally, there are over 1.5 billion people who don’t have access to electricity and over a billion more who rely on dangerous Kerosene to light their homes. JikoPower is working to provide safe and sustainable energy through affordable and clean off-grid solutions for people living in remote areas around the world. The team is working to refine generators and is collaborating with manufacturers to ready our product for scaled-production. Later this year, JikoPower will launch a pilot program in Kenya to test the product to better understand how the JikoPower generator can fit seamlessly into people’s everyday lives.

Scholarship Junkies
David Coven (BS Mechanical Engineering ’17)

“Students helping students achieve scholarship success.” Scholarship Junkies provides students with an insider’s guide to the scholarship process from the perspective of students who’ve been there.

vHAB (now MultiModal Health)
Lars Crawford (BS Neurobiology and Neurosciences ’14), Brian Mogen (PhD Bioengineering ’15), Dimitrios C. Gklezakos (PhD Computer Science ’18), Tyler Libey (PhD Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering ’16)

The vHAB project has come a long way since the start of the Jones + Foster Accelerator – the team has successfully licensed the technology from the university and started their company, MultiModal Health, Inc. Currently, MultiModal Health is in the process of broadening its go to market strategy by including a direct to consumer branch via online sales as they continue to transition our current pilot sites into paying customers and foster budding strategic partnerships with established assistive care technology companies. MultiModal Health is now looking forward to a series of conferences, first sales and revenue, and fundraising.

Benchmark Environmental
Tony Enslow (MS Mechnical Engineering, ’14), Collette Arechavelata (MBA, ’16), Joe Dennis (MBA ’16), Katie Enslow (WSU BA Accounting and Business Administration ’15), Krunal Patel (MS Mechanical Engineering ’15)

Benchmark Environmental is developing an affordable, easy to install, and low maintenance stormwater treatment system. The Benchmark ECR will enable more companies and municipalities to effectively treat every pollutant present in stormwater runoff.

The post $170K awarded to 2015 Jones + Foster Accelerator teams appeared first on Foster Blog.

In collaboration with UW CoMotion, the Foster School’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship has accepted 18 teams into the new UW NSF I-Corps Site grant program. The accepted teams will each receive a $2,500 customer discovery development grant along with mentorship, networking opportunities and other resources. Each team is pursuing a technology-related startup or commercialization opportunity and is required to enter one of the Buerk Center’s three innovation competitions.

The steering comittee for the program consists of Payman Arabshahi, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering; Connie Bourassa-Shaw, Director of the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship; Dan Schwartz, Director of the Clean Energy Institute; and Patrick Shelby, Director of CoMotion Innovation Programs. All 18 teams are in very early stages of development.

Eta1
Ryan Ahearn, Leila Asfari, Tessa Gomes, Jack Kamel, Emraj Sidhu, Marene Miley, Paul Denisenko

Eta1 decreases greenhouse gas emissions by using Heat Energy Return (H.E.R.) to improve the performance and fuel efficiency of any gasoline or diesel-powered vehicle.

iTrajectory
Rucha Nimbalkar, Damiene Stewart, Jumana Karwa, Samir Sbai, Xinhe Wang, Sri Hari Vignesh, Pooja Vade

iTrajectory uses GPS to track the user’s trajectory over time, then combines that trajectory information with social media usage.

KumaMax
William Canestaro

The Institute for Protein Design has developed a novel therapeutic enzyme, KumaMax, which benefits patients with Celiac disease by cleaving the immunogenic region of gluten in the patient’s stomach.

Student-focused computer voice commands
Ren-Wei Larry Chang, Mae Oreiro, Javier Serrano, Jonathan Suh, Mark Dela Rosa, Huy Ngo

This team bridges the gap between students with impaired vision and other disabilities by creating an automated voice interpretation software beyond what current technologies offer.

Bio-methane production units
Kevin Cussen, Sara Brostrom, Sameer Dawande, Sam Wright, Stacy Vautour Hanks, KaiQing Zhu

By creating and installing bio-methane production units in homes, indoor biomass pollution will be reduced. Indoor pollution created by households using biomass (charcoal, wood and dung) is the leading cause of death in India.

OstomyTech
Kevin Fukuhara, Vikas Singh, Nihal Uppugunduri, Saket Potluri, Jacob Jagodinski

OstomyTech’s Individualized Wafer Cutting System (IWCS) is a stoma management system including a smartphone application and a personalized wafer service which creates personalized stoma wafers that are safer than current self-serve stoma wafer cutting system.

Non-invasive IOT blood pressure measurement
Jared Herdlevar, Jeffery Lytle, Willie Jensen, Mindy Huynh

Data is collected through an IOT device using pulse transit time, which is able to be analyzed and collected.

Travel and travel planning application
Aaron Joya, Sahith Cheera

By developing a mobile application allowing customers to find pre-established routes in a specified travel destination, customers are able to travel plan more easily.

Z-ion+ Technology
Ruying Chen, Sabrina Kamran, Marvin Mecwan, Marleny Santos

Z-ion+ long-lasting grafts have coatings that prevent blood clots. Currently, 75 percent of grafts fail within two years of implementation. Z-ion+ Technology solves this issue.

Brain tissue displacement detection device
Peter Chiarelli, Devon Griggs, Maitham Naeemi, Michael Lenning

This non-imaging ultrasound device that can detect the point of the largest brain tissue displacement due to blood pooling in the cranium better and faster than current techniques (including CT scans).

Geo-tagged social media usage
Korey Padilla

By using geo-tagged food- and drink-related posts and aggregrating the posts into one place, customers and restaurants are able to access a wider variety of reviews.

Smart Charger Pro
Nannan Jiang, Niccolo Fortes, Samson M. Smith, Yutian Qian

The Smart Charger Pro charges electronic devices with optimal and customizable charging time by creating a longer lasting charge and better preserved battery quality.

Triangul8
Brian Stuart, Zach Sulauf, Moe Malakoutian

Triangul8 is a simple, icebreaking social game that fosters communication and strategic thought between two people or two couples and is played online or using mobile devices.

Aquapel: Self-cleaning solar panel surface coating
Di Sun, Karl F. Bohringer, Vijay Manohar Cherukuru, Mohan Vagul

Dust can reduce solar panel efficiency by up to 35 percent and current cleaning systems can be too expensive for the everyday user. Aquapel is a self-cleaning coating technology which repells oil and water and reduces dust accumulation.

FitTraction
Christian Taylor, Ian Turner, Justin Lee

FitTraction is a web and mobile application that is going to revolutionize the fitness industry by improving motivation, accountability, and engagement resulting in higher member retention rates, more people involved in training, and healthier individuals.

Diabetics breath analyzer
Danling Wang, Qifeng Zhang

Patients with diabetes currently monitor their health by using finger pricks and blood tests. This team is developing a low-cost, portable breath analyzer using materials with a sensitive response to acetone.

6ixS Vascular Solutions
Isaac Lam, Melissa Gile, Nicholas Zhen Hung Soo, Jason Dang, Anna Nordstrom, Ellyce Shulman

By creating a synthetic vascular graft that heals completely into a native vessel, this team can vastly improve the outcome of vascular surgeries. The most prevalent synthetic fraft in the market for hemodialysis currently has a success rate of only 50 percent over a one-year period.

The post NSF I-Corps Site grant recipients named appeared first on Foster Blog.

The long-awaited Health Innovation Challenge is just around the corner, launching on March 3, 2016. A selection panel of more than 40 judges has narrowed down the initial applicant pool of 34 teams down to just 18 exceptional groups. These innovators are transforming the way we think about think about health and healthcare, using their incredible new technologies to make an impact on all facets of human health.

Hosted by the Foster School’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, the Health Innovation Challenge is a welcome companion to the Center’s other two long-running innovation competitions, the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge and the UW Business Plan Competition.

6ixS Vascular Solutions
Le Zhen, Nicholas Zhen Hung, Isaac Lam, Jason Dang, Melissa Gile, Ellyce Shulman, Anna Nordstrom; UW Chemical Engineering and Foster School of Business

6ixS Vascular Solutions utilizes a breakthrough material to make lifesaving, long-lasting, off-the-shelf and low-cost synthetic blood vessel replacements that simultaneously provide solutions to narrowing, clotting and infection by optimizing healing.

AIBI
Chip Dong Lim, Daniel Galan; UW Design

AIBI is an allergy alert system that helps children and school staff to better respond to allergic reactions and stop the potentially fatal onset.

Appropriate Solutions
Kevin Cussen, Stacy Hanks, Sara Brostrom, Adam Zhu, Luiza Pampeo, Sam Wright; UW Foster School of Business, College of the Environment, Electrical Engineering

Our challenge is to save millions of lives by making cleaner burning biogas technologies inexpensive, reliable, and accessible enough for current customers of solid fuels to convert.

BCD
Sameer Dawande; UW Mechanical Engineering

BCD is a medical device company developing a system to rapidly identify blood clotting deficiencies and provide relevant, actionable information to caregivers.

croXwise
Maria Artunduaga, Jennifer Jenks, Don Smith, David Zerby; UW Global Health, Human Centered Design and Engineering, Biomedical and Health Informatics, Foster School of Business

croXwise is a mobile integrated mapping application that leverages existing data to decrease injury/death from motor vehicular accidents at dangerous intersections.

Engage
Emily Willard, Katherine Brandenstein; Washington State University Bioengineering

Engage works to improve medical technology in developing countries with scarce resources, initially focusing on reducing the spread of blood borne pathogens as a result of contaminated injections.

EpiForAll
Zachary Chen, Ha Seung Chung, Jazmine Saito, Wealth Salvador, Shawn Swanson; UW Mechanical Engineering, Materials Engineering

Our company’s goal is to provide easy-to-use epinephrine auto-injectors to treat anaphylaxis in economically impoverished countries to effectively address the orphan need.

FitTraction
Christian Taylor, Ian Turner, Justin Lee; UW Foster School of Business, Computer Science and Engineering

FitTraction is a web and mobile application that is going to revolutionize the fitness industry by improving motivation, accountability, and engagement resulting in higher member retention rates, more people involved in training, and healthier individuals.

HLTH
Daniel Dudley, Travis Chen, Anastacia Jaime, Yamato Abe; UW School of Medicine, Computer Science & Engineering, Human Centered Design & Engineering, and International Marketing

Our HLTH app empowers individuals (particularly low-income, underserved populations) to maintain medically-recommended preventative health schedules, as well as document their medical records.

miPS Labs
Alex Jiao, Jenna Strully, Ned Whalen, Rob Thomas, Aakash Sur, Winnie Leung; UW Foster School of Business, Bioengineering, Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education

miPS Labs allows you to preserve your youngest cells today to repair and regenerate your body tomorrow.

MultiModal Health
Brian Mogen, Tyler Libey, Dimi Gklezakos; UW Bioengineering and Computer Science and Engineering

MultiModal Health uses advanced data science and engaging software to quantify rehab, extending advanced treatment from the clinic to the home.

Novel Gram + Therapeutics
Ryan Delacruz, Omeed Faghih, Colin Johnston, Christopher Joyce; UW Pharmacy, Foster School of Business, Biochemistry and Neurobiology

Dr. Fred Buckner and Dr. Erkang Fan’s labs have discovered novel antibiotic compounds that have great bioavailability and potency against MRSA, VRE and other drug-resistant Gram-positive bacterial strains, have shown no observed toxicity in mice tests, and can be administered via IV or oral pill.

OmniBot
Michael Yacoub, Megan Hewitt; University of Washington — Bothell Biochemistry and Mechanical Engineering

We are testing the design of a gastric gas sensor that will in incorporated onto a tethered capsule endoscope to detect H. pylori infection in the stomach.

OstomyTech
Kevin Fukuhara, Yingying Li, Vikas Singh, Saket Potluri, Nihal Uppungunduri, Allyson Kline; UW Electrical Engineering, Applied Math, Biochemistry, Physics, Mechanical Engineering, Human Centered Design and Engineering

OstomyTech is a stoma management service designed to improve ostomate life through smart technology solutions.

PHSH BELT
Elizabeth Halsne, Nicole Chin, Kasey Acob, Ryan White, Wasinee Opal Sriapha; UW Rehabilitation Science, Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Bioengineering

The PHSH (pronounced “fish”) is a non-elastic support belt that is able to provide safe, effective, non-invasive and comfortable stoma protection and abdominal wall support against herniation, restoring quality of life while reducing the health care costs to 1.2 million American ostomy patients.

The Terri Test
Kegan Moo, Katie Ducich, Allen Kim, Kelly Freeman, Meghna Sareen; UW Foster School of Business, Bioengineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Biochemistry

A paper test for Lyme disease using carbon nanotubes that overcomes many significant challenges of the current testing standards, making testing significantly more efficient and cost effective.

Z-ion+ Technologies
Marvin Mecwan, Ruying Chen, Sabrina Kamran, Marleny Santos; UW Bioengineering, Pharmacology, Foster School of Business

Z-ion+ technologies utilizes patent-pending technology to make non-stick, long-lasting, durable coatings that can be applied to any vascular medical device to prevent complications due to blood clots.

Zwitterink
Caroline Tsao, Julio Rojas-Espinoza, Michael Phuong, Thanadej Throngkitpaisan, Viet Nguyen; UW Chemical Engineering

In the era of tissue engineering expanding faster than we could image, the need for customizable and highly-biocompatible material is inevitable. Zwitterink is here to provide the tissue engineering field a novel material which can be 3D printed with cells and has different mechanical properties.

The post Health Innovation Challenge teams announced appeared first on Foster Blog.

Teams and judges gather in Anthony’s Forum in Dempsey Hall during the inaugural Health Innovation Challenge.

The long-awaited Health Innovation Challenge has finally hit the University of Washington campus!

Launched on March 3, 2016, the Health Innovation Challenge plays off of the best aspects of the University of Washington and Seattle entrepreneurial communities. Eighteen teams tackled some of the most important issues arising in the fast-growing health and healthcare space, pitching those ideas to more than 90 judges in this tradeshow-style event.

Hosted by the Foster School’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, this event is modeled after the Buerk Center’s other two innovation competitions, the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge and the UW Business Plan Competition.

Sponsors included the Hollomon Family, Herbert B. Jones Foundation, UW CoMotion, Devindra and Manisha Chainani, UW Foster School of Business, UW College of Engineering, Fenwick & West, Providence Health and Services, Carena, K&L Gates, Perkins Coie, and Stratos.

The HIC is provided by the UW Foster School’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship in partnership with UW College of Engineering, UW Medicine, UW Bioengineering, and UW Department of Global Health.

After a fast-paced day of incredible pitches and interdisciplinary teams producing amazing technology, it’s time to announce the winners of the inaugural event. Congratulations to the winners of the first-ever HIC!

$10,000 Grand Prize, sponsored by the Hollomon Family

Emily Willard, Washington State University Bioengineering, undergraduate
Katherine Brandenstein, Washington State University Bioengineering, undergraduate

Engage works to improve medical technology in developing countries with scarce resources, initially focusing on reducing the spread of blood-borne pathogens as a result of contaminated injections.

$5,000 Second Place Prize, sponsored by the Herbert B. Jones Foundation

Alex Jiao, PhD candidate, UW Bioengineering
Jenna Strully, MD and MBA, UW Foster School of Business
Ned Whalen, undergraduate, UW Foster School of Business
Rob Thomas, MBA, UW Foster School of Business
Aakash Sur, PhD, UW Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education
Winnie Leung, master’s candidate, UW Bioengineering

miPS Labs allows you to preserve your youngest cells today to repair and regenerate your body tomorrow.

$2,500 Third Place Prize, sponsored by UW’s CoMotion

Brian Mogen, PhD candidate, UW Bioengineering
Tyler Libey, PhD candidate, UW Bioengineering
Dimi Gklezakos, PhD candidate, UW Computer Science and Engineering

MultiModal Health uses advanced data science and engaging software to quantify rehab, extending advanced treatment from the clinic to the home.

In addition to the three prize winners, several runner-up $1000 “Judges Also Really Liked” awards were given out. Congratulations to the following teams!

EpiForAll 

Zachary Chen, undergraduate, UW Mechanical Engineering
Ha Seung Chung, undergraduate, UW Mechanical Engineering
Jazmine Saito, undergraduate, UW Mechanical Engineering
Wealth Salvador, undergraduate, UW Mechanical Engineering
Shawn Swanson, master’s degree candidate, UW Materials Science and Engineering

Our company’s goal is to provide easy-to-use epinephrine auto-injectors to treat anaphylaxis in economically impoverished countries to effectively address the orphan need.

6ixS

Le Zhen, PhD candidate, UW Chemical Engineering
Nicholas Zhen Hung, undergraduate, UW Chemical Engineering
Isaac Lam, undergraduate, UW Chemical Engineering
Jason Dang, undergraduate, UW Chemical Engineering
Melissa Gile, undergraduate, UW Chemical Engineering
Ellyce Shulman, MBA candidate, UW Foster School of Business
Anna Nordstrom, MBA candidate, UW Foster School of Business

6ixS Vascular Solutions utilizes a breakthrough material to make lifesaving, long-lasting, off-the-shelf and low-cost synthetic blood vessel replacements that simultaneously provide solutions to narrowing, clotting and infection by optimizing healing.

Novel Gram + Therapeutics

Ryan Delacruz, doctoral candidate, UW Pharmacy
Omeed Faghih, BS, UW Biochemistry and Neurobiology
Colin Johnston, MBA candidate, UW Foster School of Business
Christopher Joyce, MBA candidate, UW Foster School of Business & master’s degree candidate, Pharmaceutical Engineering

Dr. Fred Buckner and Dr. Erkang Fan’s labs have discovered novel antibiotic compounds that have great bioavailability and potency against MRSA, VRE and other drug-resistant Gram-positive bacterial strains, have shown no observed toxicity in mice tests, and can be administered via IV or oral pill.

Read more about the Health Innovation Challenge here and here.

The post $20,500 awarded to inaugural HIC winners appeared first on Foster Blog.

The EIC 2015 banner outside of the Seattle Center.

Founded in 2009, the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge has spent seven years tackling some of the most pressing environmental issues of our time. Over the years, the EIC has awarded more than $180,000 to teams attacking major environmental problems with real technology like thermoelectric generators, portable solar panel chargers, and insulation panels built from recycled materials salvaged from waste streams.

The 2016 EIC, which will take place on March 31, received 33 applications from college student teams across the state. The 23 chosen teams represent five schools and address a wide range of environmental issues. Read more about the winning teams from the 2015 EIC here and learn about the 2016 teams below.

ASCOL
Mahdi Ashrafi, Casey Carte, Brandon Smith, Saad Zaki, Daniel Park, Moni Pal, Andy Tan, Xinyao Ding; UW Mechanical Engineering

ASCOL’s technology is the first and only method that significantly cuts the cost and energy associated with bonding Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) composites parts, by applying the energy to where it is needed.

AgriC
Daniel Park, Moni Pal, Andy Tan, Xinyao Ding; UW Foster School of Business, UW Economics, UW Biology and ACMS, UW Civil and Environmental Engineering

Produce chitin-based biodegradable plastics for agriculture which has a niche of serving as a fertilizer after decomposing.

Aquapel
Di Sun, Adam Zhu, Manohar Cherukuru; UW Electrical Engineering, UW Information Systems

Aquapel self-cleaning surface technology is a patented coating process to create water and oil repellent surfaces and at the same time, Aquapel can control the movement of water droplets on the surface to clean away dust particles.

Battery Informatics
Manan Pathak, Matt Murbach, Mushfiqur Sarker; UW Chemical Engineering, UW Electrical Engineering

Battery Informatics’ mission is to become a leader in providing systems for optimal operation of Lithium-ion batteries for electric grids and commercial buildings.

CO2-Quest
Bartholomew Olson, Eric Williams, Iziah Nixon, Michael Clark, Phillip Stepherson, Ry-Yon Nixon; Eastern Washington University Electrical Engineering, UW Physics, City University of Seattle Finance

The CO2-Quest project will recycle CO2 by feeding it in high concentrations to a fast-growing aquatic plant, duckweed, whose high starch concentration makes it an ideal ethanol production feedstock.

Decaf Style
Archana Narayan, Chun-Chia Kao, Yu-Liang Liu, Muhamad Asyraaf Bin Said Muhamad Khalil, Matthew Willett; UW Foster School of Business, UW Chemical Engineering

Decaf Style: Decaf On the Way to Go is currently developing new environmentally friendly materials that provide instant beverage decaffeination without affecting the taste.

Eagle R-1
Lucas Rockstrom, Eastern Washington University Mechanical Engineering

The project is to create an economical, tilting, Human-Electric hybrid vehicle capable of transporting a driver and passenger safely and efficiently at freeway speeds.

easyXAFS
Devon Mortensen, UW Physics

We will accelerate the discovery cycle in battery, catalysis, nuclear reactor materials, and environmental research and development by providing the first affordable, user-friendly access to advanced x-ray spectroscopies.

EC Meeseeks
Lefteris Kampianakis, Robert Masse, Dan Shea; UW Electrical Engineering, UW Materials Science

EC Meeseeks is building a low-cost (~$100) alternative to battery testing instrumentation, which typically runs in excess of $5000.

ETA1
Ryan Ahearn, Kyle Roberts, Leila Asfari, Lukas Hillerstrom, Tessa Gomes, Jack Kamel; UW Mechanical Engineering, UW Physics

A device that converts the wasted heat energy from the engine of a car into electrical energy which in turn increases the fuel economy of the car.

Green Esters
Rishikesh Ghogare, Xiaochao Xiong, Yaojing Qiu; WSU Biological Systems Engineering

To overcome the key barriers of valorization of waste streams and high cost of biofuel production, the team will develop a synthetic biology platform to transform the negative-value or low-value waste materials into advanced biofuels and valuable chemicals.

Ionic Window
Anthony Moretti, Greg Newbloom; UW Chemical Engineering

Ionic Window provides low-cost, high-performance membranes for emerging grid-scale energy storage technologies.

Pedal Motive
Jason Bennett, Nickolas Hein; Pinchot University Metro MBA

Speedcase is an easy-to-use, weatherproof transmission that replaces derailleurs on existing bicycles to make them more dependable for year-round transportation, reducing cyclists’ reliance on the automobile for daily transportation needs.

Phase4
Kurt Kung, Lucas DuSablon, Jason Huang, Khang Lee, Xinying Zeng; UW Bioengineering, UW Evans School of Public Affairs, UW Civil and Environmental Engineering, UW Electrical Engineering

Phase4 aims to provide an environmentally friendly filterless filter to multiple industrial filtration applications in a fully sustainable manner.

Protium Innovations
Bailee DePhelps, Brian Karlberg, Eli Shoemake, Mitchell Scott; Washington State University Mechanical Engineering, WSU Materials Science, WSU Chemical Engineering

Hydrogen fuel cells require infrastructure development and the project will be building a hydrogen liquefaction unit which uses vortex tube technology to be more, efficient, cost effective, environmentally friendly, and scalable than current solutions.

Rite-Rain
Jeremy Gratz, Kately Stroud, Paul Riener, Weston Dotson; Eastern Washington University Mechanical Engineering, EWU Business, EWU Mechanical Engineering

Rite-Rain attaches ground moisture sensor technology to a homeowner’s garden hose sprinkler to automatically turn off the sprinkler and eliminate over-watering.

SafeFlame
Kevin Cussen, Luiza Pompeo, Sara Brostrom, Sam Wright, Stacy Hanks; UW Foster School of Business, UW College of the Environment, UW Engineering, UW Political Science

Energy security as a service that reduces greenhouse gases.

Sifiniti
David Ameneyro, Sameer Dawande, Shobana Vaidyanathan, Yingying Li, UW Foster School of Business, UW Mechanical Engineering

Sifinti is building a consumer appliance to grow up to 50 percent of a family’s vegetables using highly efficient, environmentally friendly, and proven aeroponic technology.

Slow Food Fast
Ian Hazard-Bill, Evan Mulvaney, Colin Stewart, Nicole Warren; The Evergreen State College Business and Sustainability Studies, ESC Agricultural Sciences

The project aims to prevent food from entering the waste stream by developing a network of mobile food-processing units that turn perishable food into shelf-stable goods, addressing the factors that lead to the problem of food waste: perishability, transport, consumer taste, cost of using food waste.

Smart Charger Pro
Nannan Jiang, Niccolo Fortes, Samson Smith, Yanbo Qi, Yutian Qian; UW Chemical Engineering

Smart Charger Pro offers customers a smarter way to charge their electronic devices; utilizing flexible charging rates powered by electrochemical model control, a longer life per charge and improved battery health can be achieved, to reduce battery waste and save energy .

Tape-It-Easy
Elias Baker, Lauren Mittelman, Brian Wu; Seattle University Mechanical Engineering, UW School of Public Health

Tape-It-Easy is a tool that simplifies the installation of water efficient drip irrigation, removing barriers to adoption, and ultimately contributing to global water conservation.

UbiEnergy
Matthew Fife, UW Electrical Engineering

UbiEnergy has created an easy-to-use, mobile energy harvesting system that can capture energy and store it for use with common devices needed in developing countries.

WT Environtech
Mengjie Cao, Dan Guo, Wentao Li; UW Civil & Environmental Engineering, UW Electrical Engineering

Develop a novel small, cheap and sensitive sensor using UV absorbance and fluorescence methods for frequent online measuring water quality.

The post Eighth annual EIC teams chosen appeared first on Foster Blog.

It’s the eighth year of the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge and possibly the most eventful yet. With more than 150 judges present — ranging from local startup leaders to sustainability managers at large corporations like Microsoft and Starbucks — innovation and strategy took center stage. Students tackled big issues with the aim of saving the world. With some prize money awarded, the advice of big league strategists and investors, and some pitching under their belts, these student teams are ready to take on the next step of growing their business.

Twenty-three teams from eight different universities across Washington state competed with the task of not only creating the plan for a business that can improve the environment, but that is also sustainable in another way: a business that could continue to exist beyond the realm of the Challenge. After plenty of deliberation, the EIC judges submitted their votes for the winning teams. A total of $38,000 was distributed to winning teams, with the intention to spur them on in further business development and growth. Here are the teams that rose to the top.

$15,000 Grand Prize, sponsored by Wells Fargo

AgriC
Daniel Park, Moni Pal, Andy Tan, Xinyao Ding; UW Foster School of Business, UW Economics, UW Biology and ACMS, UW Civil and Environmental Engineering

Produce chitin-based biodegradable plastics for agriculture which has a niche of serving as a fertilizer after decomposing. Chitin is an organic material derived from crustacean shells.

$10,000 Second Place Prize, sponsored by Herbert B. Jones Foundation
as well as $5,000 Clean Energy Prize, sponsored by the UW Clean Energy Institute

Ionic Windows
Ian Hochstein, Anthony Moretti; UW Chemical Engineering

Ionic Window provides low-cost, high-performance membranes for emerging grid-scale energy storage technologies, reducing the cost flow of batteries by 25 percent and making grid-scale renewable energy economically viable.

$5,000 Third Place Prize, sponsored by Starbucks

ETA1
Ryan Ahearn, Kyle Roberts, Leila Asfari, Lukas Hillerstrom, Tessa Gomes, Jack Kamel; UW Mechanical Engineering, UW Physics

A device that converts the wasted heat energy from the engine of a car into electrical energy which in turn increases the fuel economy of the car.

$1,000 “Judges Also Really Liked” awards, sponsored by Puget Sound Energy

Aquapel
Bruno Ouattara, Di Sun, Adam Zhu, Jenny Wang, Mariko Howard; UW Electrical Engineering, UW Information Systems

Aquapel self-cleaning surface technology is a patented coating process to create water and oil repellent surfaces and at the same time, Aquapel can control the movement of water droplets on the surface to clean away dust particles.

Battery Informatics
Manan Pathak, Matt Murbach, Uttara Sahaym, Mushfiqur Sarker; UW Chemical Engineering, UW Electrical Engineering

Battery Informatics’ mission is to become a leader in providing systems for optimal operation of Lithium-ion batteries for electric grids and commercial buildings.

Tape-It-Easy
Elias Baker, Lauren Mittelman, Brian Wu; Seattle University Mechanical Engineering, UW School of Public Health

Tape-It-Easy is a tool that simplifies the installation of water efficient drip irrigation, removing barriers to adoption, and ultimately contributing to global water conservation.

The post Eighth annual EIC wraps up with a bang appeared first on Foster Blog.

Wells Fargo has a long history of strong environmental commitment. With more LEED-certified square footage than any other financial institutions in the world and more than $52 billion deployed to environmental finance and clean tech activities since 2012, Wells Fargo has a clear commitment to improving the planet. The Foster School of Business’ Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship is proud to announce Wells Fargo’s $450,000 sponsorship of the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge to be given over a three-year period.

In a surprise ceremony at the 2016 EIC, the Wells Fargo team presented a check to the EIC team. Mary Knell, Wells Fargo’s CEO of Commercial Banking in Washington and Western Canada, kicked off the reception ceremony.

“We created a $100 million environmental philanthropy goal by 2020, to support projects across the U.S. that are targeting environmental projects related to conservation,” Knell said. “We also support think tanks, research and development, and business plan competitions — like this one — helping clean technology ideas get to the marketplace.”

Wells Fargo sees the University of Washington as a leader and catalyst of new technology solutions, Knell added, and is proud to partner with a place inspiring a new generation of thought leaders.

The Foster School of Business and the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship are so honored to be connected to such an incredible organization and look forward to working with the Wells Fargo team to support and encourage student environmental innovation.

The post Wells Fargo awards $450K to EIC appeared first on Foster Blog.

BPC 2015 grand prize winning team Vie Diagnostics pitches judges during the 2015 Investment Round.

A powerful catalyst for turning student innovation into new ventures, the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship’s UW Business Plan Competition launches into its nineteenth year in 2016. Ninety-three teams consisting of 300 students from 10 colleges and universities submitted applications to this year’s BPC. Thirty-six teams representing seven different universities rose to the top and will enter the Investment Round of the competition on Wednesday, April 27.

On top of the opportunity to win the $25K Herbert B. Jones Foundation Grand Prize, the $10K WRF Capital Second Place Prize, the $7.5K Friends of the BPC Third Place Prize, and the $5K Fenwick & West Finalist Prizes awarded after the final round of the BPC, teams are able to win prizes ranging from the Best Idea Prizes like REI’s Best Retail Innovation Idea or Cambia Health Solutions’ Best Health/Healthcare Idea to Big Picture Prizes like UIEvolution’s $5,000 Internet of Things (IoT) prize and WinWin’s Tri-Sector Prize.

Read more about the BPC 2016 sponsors and prizes here and learn about the 36 teams below.

AAArdwolf Technologies
Robert Masse, UW Materials Science

AAArdwolf Technology is deploying a next-generation battery testing platform composed of low-cost hardware and cloud-connected software. This market will allow us to perfect our technology before pursuing larger markets for IoT science instruments.

ACRELO
Jack Parker, Spencer Seim, Ryan Kadletz; Pinchot University MBA

Acrelo is a SaaS-based commercial real estate application that streamlines the marketing process for brokers, allowing them more time to focus on closing transactions.

Aquapel
Di Sun, Mariko Howard, Adam Zhu, Jenny Wang, Bruno Out, David Zerby; UW Electrical Engineering, UW Bothell Electrical Engineering, UW Bothell Mechanical Engineering, UW Japanese, UW Political Science, UW Foster School of Business

Aquapel patented technologies create a self-cleaning system for solar panels by creatively manipulating water droplets movement on the panel’s surface. By doing this, we eliminate labor cost, minimize water usage, and cut back the payback time by 25 percent.

Bathing Beauteas
Joyce Tang, Emily Smith, Sara Almughairy, Stephanie Mai; UW Foster School of Business, UW Human-Centered Design and Engineering, UW Communications

Bathing Beauteas is a reinvented tea bath experience that combines historical bathing traditions and today’s natural ingredients to empower the modern woman. We aim to provide a healthy in-home spa experience to help high energy, high impact women.

Bellhapp
Rishabh Jain, Corey Cole, Rion Ramirez; UW Foster School of Business, UW Informatics

Bellhapp is a technology startup dedicated to revolutionizing the way restaurants do business.

BridgeCare Finance
Christina Chase, Jamee Herbert, Mike Chiles, Audra Jung; Pinchot University MBA

BridgeCare Finance offers bridge financing to break down the cost barriers of childcare for working families. We create greater choice, higher quality care options and the ability to maintain continuous career paths.

Capture
Kyle Huber, Vijay Kumar, Sara Al Mughairy, Matt Robinson, Annie Pyle, Alex Polozov, Paula Kosasih; UW Foster School of Business, UW School of Law, UW Human-Computer Interaction and Design, UW Computer Science, UW Interaction Design

Capture disrupts the traditional photography industry, helping great photography make sense for all great moments. Capture is an online platform that connects customers with qualified, local freelance photographers in a simple, cost-effective manner.

Decaf Style
Chun-Chia Kao, Archana Narayan, Yu-Liang Liu, Muhamad Said, Matthew Willett; UW Chemical Engineering, UW Foster School of Business

Decaf Style: Decaf On The Way to Go is currently developing new natural and cost-effective materials that provide instant beverage decaffeination without use of chemicals or affecting the taste.

DTS Aerospace
Sarah Robbins, Drake Perez, Taylor Prince; Washington State University Civil Engineering, WSU Mechanical Engineering

DTS Aerospace provide flammability testing services to aerospace manufacturers. Our automated testing design provides customers with more reliable and accurate data on tested airplane interior materials.

easyXAFS
Devon Mortensen, Ryan Valenza, Alex Ditter; UW Physics

We are accelerating the discovery cycle in battery, catalysis, nuclear reactor materials, and environmental research and development by providing the first affordable, user-friendly access to advanced x-ray spectroscopies.

Emobie Labs
Lindsey Arnold, Ryan Porter, Gabe Feeley; UW Human-Centered Design and Engineering, UW Chemistry, Stanford University Computer Science

Emobie Labs is creating affordable social robots for children for the purposes of therapy, tutoring, and play.

Engage
Emily Willard, Katherine Brandenstein; WSU Bioengineering

Engage develops medical technology for developing countries with a shortage of resources, initially through the product SafeShot to reduce the spread of blood-borne diseases.

FitTraction
Justin Lee, Christian Taylor, Ian Turner; UW Computer Science, UW Foster School of Business

FitTraction is a workout tracking app that is driven by its ability to build and provide human relationships that foster accountability. It will benefit health clubs and personal trainers by improving retention and increasing training revenue.

Goodi
Tianyi Chen, Max Lo, Yingkai Wang, Zehao Sun, Priyanka Balasubramanian, Yuwei Ding, Yuan Zhuang; UW Economics, UW Computer Science, UW Electrical Engineering, UW Human-Centered Design and Engineering

Goodi is the one-stop solution to all academic problems. It speeds up the process of academic problem solving because it allows users to bid for their question and to earn money by answering questions of others.

Hair Vision
Ali Ziadloo, Erik Logan, Shubha Mandyam Pratiwadibhayankar, Donald Brockett; UW Foster School of Business

To men who are concerned about hair loss, Hair Vision provides a fast, accurate, and convenient way to monitor their hair loss, giving them confidence in their hair.

Hitch’d
Daniel Behrman, Ryan Gerber, Ken Horenstein; UW Foster School of Business, UW Human-Computer Interaction and Design

Hitch’d is the world’s first mobile-forward, data-driven booking solution for couples looking to plan their dream wedding. Our goal is to create a streamlined service that simplifies and accelerates the wedding planning and vendor booking process.

Ionic Windows
Anthony Moretti, Ian Hochstein; UW Chemical Engineering, UW Foster School of Business

Ionic Windows provides membranes to flow battery manufacturers that enable a 25% capital cost reduction, making grid-scale renewable energy economically viable.

JikoPower
Michael Jooste, Marene Wiley; UW Foster School of Business, UW Political Economy

At JikoPower, thermoelectric generators harness wasted energy and convert it into electricity to charge cell phones, LED lights, and other small devices. By doing this, JikoPower is able to provide safe, sustainable energy to people around the world.

Joe Chocolates
Renee Chang, Sam Tanner, Grace Bentson; UW Visual Communication Design, UW Foster School of Business

At Joe Chocolates, the mission is to make the best chocolate-covered espresso beans, allowing people to take their favorite Seattle coffees with them around the city and around the world.

Kazoo
Kamal Manchanda, Vinish Benny, Diwaker Gunturi, Shaun Lewis; UW Foster School of Business

Kazoo streamlines the kid’s birthday party planning process by providing one stop shop for parents to select venue, book catering, hire entertainers, choose party supplies and send invitations using real-time integration with suppliers.

MetRS
Christopher Joyce, Ryan Delacruz, Colin Johnston, Omeed Faghih; UW Biochemistry, UW Foster School of Business, UW Pharmacy

MetRS has discovered new antibiotics that have great oral bioavailability and potency against drug-resistant bacteria like MRSA and Staph and can be administered via IV or oral pill thus saving potentially billions of dollars in healthcare costs.

miPS Labs
Alex Jiao, Jenna Strully, Ned Whalen, Rob Thomas, Aakash Sur, Winnie Leung; UW Bioengineering, UW Foster School of Business, UW Biomedical and Health Informatics

Preserve your cells today. Regenerate your body tomorrow. miPS Labs offers consumers cell preservation and personalized stem cell generation for stem cell therapies and diagnostics.

MultiModal Health
Brian Mogen, Lars Crawford, Tyler Libey, Dimitrios Gklezakos; UW Bioengineering, UW Neurobiology, UW Computer Science & Engineering

MultiModal Health develops connected platforms using affordable sensing and analytic technology to understand and improve health for everyone.

Night Light
James Rothenberger, Adam Riddle, Tristan Lee; UW Foster School of Business, UW Human-Computer Interaction & Design

Night Light is a traffic signal company that utilizes laser and LED technology to provide municipalities, states, and corporate partners illuminated signals that improve pedestrian safety!

nomAD Technologies
Jonah Friedl, Conner Brennick, Tanner Strobel; Washington State University Business Administration, WSU Computer Science

nomAD Technologies puts brands at the heart of the consumer environment with captivating advertising displays and supportive software

PHSH
Nicole Chin, Elizabeth Halsne, Kasey Acob, Wasinee Opal Sriapha, Venus Chan; UW Materials Science & Engineering, UW Rehabilitation Science, UW Mechanical Engineering, UW Foster School of Business

The PHSH is a non-elastic support belt that provides safe, effective, non-invasive, and comfortable stoma protection and hernia prevention, restoring quality of life and reducing the health care costs to 1.2 million American ostomy patients.

Revwoo
Rafael Wong, Liz Koser, Jedidiah Crews; UW Foster School of Business

RevWoo.com is a B2B online accounting services marketplace matching entrepreneurs with vetted accountants for on-demand advice and projects.

Rite-Rain
Weston Dotson, Jeremy Gratz, Katelyn Stround, Paul Reiner; Eastern Washington University Mechanical Engineering, EWU General Management

Rite-Rain attaches ground moisture sensor technology to a homeowner’s garden hose sprinkler to automatically turn off the sprinkler and eliminate over-watering.

SafeFlame
Kevin Cussen, Sam Wright, Stacy Hanks, Luiza Pompeo; UW Foster School of Business, UW Political Economics

A service-based approach to bringing a healthy, renewable, and competitively priced fuel source to energy-insecure constituents in the developing world.

Safe-Fur
Ipolitas Dunaravich, Ashley Smith; UW Foster School of Business

Implantable GPS for pets. Piezo-electric energy harvesting.

Scholarship Junkies
David Coven, Emily Majors, Mikael Hernandez; UW Mechanical Engineering, UW Chinese Language and Literature, UW Communicatinons, UW Applied Physics

Students helping provide free, top quality support for anyone striving to fund their college success.

Smart Charger Pro
Yanbo Qi, Yutian Qian, Samson Smith, Niccolo Fortes, Nannan Jiang; UW Chemical Engineering

The Smart Charger Pro offers customers a smarter and customizable way to charge their electronic devices; utilizing flexible rates, a quicker charge or a longer life per charge and improved battery health can be achieved while reducing battery waste.

Tack
Kevin Ye, Nick Mao, Keegan Farley; UW Psychology, UW Foster School of Business, UW Informatics

Teams are currently juggling 3 different tools just to talk internally, and the worst part is none of the tools talk to each other. Tack provides a mobile platform that helps non-technical teams collaborate by combining communication and task management

VESPAR
Larry Chang, Mae Oreiro, Mark Dela Rosa, Brian Som, Rachel Renolds, Dane Jessen, Katie Kenny; UW Tacoma Information Technology, UW Tacoma Business Administration

VESPAR, LLC is a software company specializing in point of sales systems for drive-thru ordering. Our vision is to revolutionize the way drive-thru ordering is conducted.

VIGILUMI
Shane Colburn, Nerea Alayo, Alan Zhan, Snigdha Singh, Lionel Wang; UW Electrical Engineering, UW Physics

Vigilumi offers a sensor for mobile, instant monitoring of eye pressure to assist in glaucoma management. The sensor will be implanted through a well-known sutureless surgery procedure, which is critical for the acceptance of the sensor.

Z-ion+ Technologies
Marvin Mecwan, Ruying Chen, Sabrina Kamran, Marleny Santos; UW Bioengineering, UW Pharmacology, UW Foster School of Business

Z-ion+ technologies utilizes patent-pending technology to make non-stick, long-lasting, durable coatings that can be applied to any vascular medical device to prevent complications due to blood clots.

The post Nineteenth annual BPC teams head to Investment Round appeared first on Foster Blog.

At the nineteenth annual UW Business Plan Competition (BPC) Investment Round, student innovations took center stage. This tradeshow-style round involved 335 judges listening to the 36 teams’ pitches for technologies ranging from chocolate-covered espresso beans to self-recharging, implantable GPS for pets. A total of 96 teams applied for the BPC — 36 of those teams were selected for the Investment Round on Thursday, April 27 and competed for spots in the Sweet Sixteen, which will take place on May 26.

For 19 years, the BPC has been a powerful catalyst for turning student innovation into new ventures. More than 100 companies that came through the BPC are still in business, including Experiment, Uphill Designs, and NanoString Technologies. This year’s teams and technologies were more impressive than ever. Judges commented on the teams’ incredible pitching ability and how well-developed the companies and ideas were.

The BPC is best known for the visibility it provides student entrepreneurs and the connections that are made among judges and students. This year, a total of $85,000 will be awarded, from the $25K Herbert B. Jones Foundation Grand Prize, the $10K WRF Capital Second Place Prize to the seven $2.5K Best Idea Prizes. This year’s Best Idea Prizes include REI’s Best Retail Innovation Idea and Cambia Health Solutions’ Best Health/Healthcare Idea. New this year are the Big Picture Prizes, including UIEvolution’s $5,000 Internet of Things (IoT) prize and AARP’s Aging in Place prize. Best Idea and Big Picture prizes were decided during the Investment Round but will not be announced until the end of the competition.

Learn about the Sweet Sixteen teams below and read more about the BPC 2016 sponsors and prizes here.

Aquapel
Di Sun, Mariko Howard, Adam Zhu, Jenny Wang, Bruno Out, David Zerby; UW Electrical Engineering, UW Bothell Electrical Engineering, UW Bothell Mechanical Engineering, UW Japanese, UW Political Science, UW Foster School of Business

Aquapel patented technologies create a self-cleaning system for solar panels by creatively manipulating water droplets movement on the panel’s surface. By doing this, we eliminate labor cost, minimize water usage, and cut back the payback time by 25 percent.

Bellhapp
Rishabh Jain, Corey Cole, Trevor Allen, Max Schreiber; UW Foster School of Business, UW Informatics, UW Human-Centered Design and Engineering

Bellhapp is a technology startup dedicated to revolutionizing the way restaurants do business. We work with restaurants that want to move part of their customer interaction onto an adaptive mobile platform by providing an ecosystem that links the consumer, waitstaff, and management team better than ever before.

Decaf Style
Chun-Chia Kao, Archana Narayan, Yu-Liang Liu, Muhamad Said, Matthew Willett; UW Chemical Engineering, UW Foster School of Business

Decaf Style: Decaf On The Way to Go is currently developing new natural and cost-effective materials that provide instant beverage decaffeination without use of chemicals or affecting the taste.

Engage
Emily Willard, Katherine Brandenstein; WSU Bioengineering

Engage develops medical technology for developing countries with a shortage of resources, initially through the product SafeShot to reduce the spread of bloodborne diseases.

Hitch’d
Daniel Behrman, Ryan Gerber, Ken Horenstein; UW Foster School of Business, UW Human-ComputerInteraction and Design

Hitch’d is the world’s first mobile-forward, data-driven booking solution for couples looking to plan their dream wedding. Our goal is to create a streamlined service that simplifies and accelerates the wedding planning and vendor booking process.

Ionic Windows
Anthony Moretti, Ian Hochstein; UW Chemical Engineering, UW Foster School of Business

Ionic Windows provides membranes to flow battery manufacturers that enable a 25 percent capital cost reduction, making grid-scale renewable energy economically viable.

JikoPower
Michael Jooste, Marene Wiley; UW Foster School of Business, UW Political Economy

At JikoPower, thermoelectric generators harness wasted energy and convert it into electricity to charge cell phones, LED lights, and other small devices. By doing this, JikoPower is able to provide safe, sustainable energy to people around the world.

Joe Chocolates
Renee Chang, Sam Tanner, Grace Bentson; UW Visual Communication Design, UW Foster School of Business

At Joe Chocolates, the mission is to make the best chocolate-covered espresso beans, allowing people to take their favorite Seattle coffees with them around the city and around the world.

MetRS
Christopher Joyce, Ryan Delacruz, Colin Johnston, Omeed Faghih; UW Biochemistry, UW Foster School of Business, UW Pharmacy

MetRS has discovered new antibiotics that have great potency against drug-resistant bacteria like MRSA and Staph. If approved this drug could save approximately $27 million in healthcare costs and 55 lives daily.

miPS Labs
Alex Jiao, Jenna Strully, Ned Whalen, Rob Thomas, Aakash Sur, Winnie Leung; UW Bioengineering, UW Foster School of Business, UW Biomedical and Health Informatics

Preserve your cells today. Regenerate your body tomorrow. miPS Labs offers consumers cell preservation and personalized stem cell generation for stem cell therapies and diagnostics.

MultiModal Health
Brian Mogen, Lars Crawford, Tyler Libey, Dimitrios Gklezakos; UW Bioengineering, UW Neurobiology, UW Computer Science & Engineering

MultiModal Health develops connected platforms using affordable sensing and analytic technology to understand and improve health for everyone.

Ocumen
Shane Colburn, Nerea Alayo, Alan Zhan, Snigdha Singh, Lionel Wang; UW Electrical Engineering, UW Physics, Foster School of Business

Ocumen offers a sensor for mobile, instant monitoring of eye pressure to assist in glaucoma management. The sensor will be implanted through a well-known sutureless surgery procedure, which is critical for the acceptance of the sensor.

Safe-Fur
Ipolitas Dunaravich, Ashley Smith, Javier Schialer, Alex Zhouk, Sebastian Schialer; UW Foster School of Business

The world’s first self-recharging implantable GPS, created to effectively help recover lost or stolen pets.

Smart Charger Pro
Yanbo Qi, Yutian Qian, Samson Smith, Niccolo Fortes, Nannan Jiang; UW Chemical Engineering

The Smart Charger Pro offers customers a smarter and customizable way to charge their electronic devices; utilizing flexible rates, a quicker charge or a longer life per charge and improved battery health can be achieved while reducing battery waste.

Tack
Kevin Ye, Nick Mao, Keegan Farley; UW Psychology, UW Foster School of Business, UW Informatics

Teams are currently juggling three different tools just to talk internally, and the worst part is none of the tools talk to each other. Tack provides a mobile platform that helps non-technical teams collaborate by combining communication and task management

Z-ion+ Technologies
Marvin Mecwan, Ruying Chen, Sabrina Kamran, Marleny Santos; UW Bioengineering, UW Pharmacology, UW Foster School of Business

Z-ion+ technologies utilizes patent-pending technology to make non-stick, long-lasting, durable coatings that can be applied to any vascular medical device to prevent complications due to blood clots.

Alternates

ACRELO
Jack Parker, Spencer Seim, Ryan Kadletz; Pinchot University MBA

Marketing automation software for the commercial real estate industry that increases broker efficiency by eliminating manual, repetitive data entry.

Rite-Rain
Weston Dotson, Jeremy Gratz, Megan Tollefson; Eastern Washington University Mechanical Engineering

Rite-Rain is the first product that controls hose-attached lawn irrigation sprinklers using ground moisture sensor technology, resulting in water cost savings and increased convenience for homeowners.

The post BPC teams head for the Sweet Sixteen appeared first on Foster Blog.

JikoPower

The investment round of the annual UW Business Plan Competition is, as ever, a feast for the senses.

The HUB ballroom takes on the air of a carnival midway. Determined teams of student entrepreneurs work the hundreds of roving judges, their voices ascending in a muddled chorus of elevator pitches, tenacious cajolery and vivid descriptions of their inventions and innovations.

Fittraction

They are decked out in lab coats, branded chef toques, matching orange jerseys that might catch the eye of an orbiting satellite.

They display professional-grade logos, prototypes and digital renderings.

They exhibit all manner of arresting props. The brawny guys at FitTraction hold forth around a fully loaded bench press (and look like they know what to do with it). The team at Club Genie installs a putting green. Hitch’d shows a miniature wedding party complete with Champagne glasses and cupcake tower. SafeFlame’s curious 55-gallon drum fuels a simple cookstove with vegetable and human biomass. Joe Chocolate metes out a tasteful (and tasty) array of luxurious chocolate-covered espresso beans.

Joe Chocolate

Perhaps the best interactive display belongs to CadaVR, a virtual reality learning tool for medical students. Who could pass up the chance to try their (digital) hand at a little open-heart surgery through the lens of an Oculus Rift?

CadaVR

Beyond the professional branding and eye-catching visuals, the room is stock full of fascinating business propositions.

It’s a dizzying diversity of innovative ideas, win or lose.

Aquapel offers a self-cleaning system for solar panels. Bellhapp‘s app automates aspects of the restaurant dining experience, while VESPAR automates the drive-through.

JikoPower (of the orange shirts) extracts thermoelectricity from cookstoves to charge digital devices and LEDs. Night Light is building a smart crosswalk to better illuminate pedestrians in the dark.

Ocumen has created a glaucoma sensor that can be inserted during cataract surgery. miPS Labs offers human cell preservation for future gene therapies. Z-ion+ Technologies has developed a coating for vascular medical devices that prevents blood clotting.

Emobie

Safe-Fur is a self-charging GPS tracker that can be implanted on pets. Emobie Labs creates pets of a different kind: emotionally intelligent (not to mention super-cute and furry) robot companions.

Tack is a mobile platform that helps non-technical teams collaborate. Capture is shareconomy play for photography, finding the sweet spot between cell phone snapshots and professional portraiture.

The Decaf Style team is developing an inexpensive teabag-style sachet that can decaffeinate a standard cup of coffee without chemicals or affecting taste.

The company is represented today, among the teeming mass of judges, by a walking billboard, an oversized cup of decaf coffee with legs. “I have been chemically treated,” moans a cartoon word bubble above this sad cup of Joe. “Save me with Decaf Style.”

Decaf Style

I finally catch up to the young man who has been tasked with spreading the message of Decaf Style around the Investment Round’s rows of investors and competitors. The man behind the billboard is Chun-Chai Kao, a chemical engineering student at the UW.

“You must have drawn the short straw to have to wear this all afternoon,” I say.

He smiles broadly to dispel my assumption.

“No, I wanted to!”

It’s just that kind of event.

The Investment Round of the 19^th annual UW Business Plan Competition, presented by the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship at the Foster School of Business, took place April 27. Check out the companies that have advanced to the BPC Sweet Sixteen.

The post The sights and sounds of the UW Business Plan Competition appeared first on Foster Blog.

May 26, 2016 –  Like pig farmers, entrepreneurs — when handed pigs — should make bacon. That’s according to John Gabbert, CEO and founder of PitchBook and Foster School alumnus (’96), who got his entrepreneurial start as a pig farmer in a small town. He told his entrepreneurial story and encouraged students as the keynote speaker of the UW Business Plan Competition awards dinner.

“The real value of this competition is the experience of thinking about the business, analyzing the product, and figuring out what it takes to bring a company to market,” Gabbert said.

More prizes, more winners, and more judges made for a bigger-than-ever year at the UW Business Plan Competition. With $85,000 awarded in seed funding, more than 300 judges and the addition of several new prizes, the nineteenth year of the BPC was truly outstanding.

The UW Business Plan Competition, run by the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship in the UW Foster School of Business, offers students with an entrepreneurial spark the opportunity to turn their ideas into viable startups. In the 19 years since the BPC began, 1,371 business plans have been submitted to the competition. More than 4,400 students have participated and $1.3 million has been awarded.

Congratulations to this year’s winners:

$25,000 Grand Prize

Sponsored by the Herbert B. Jones Foundation

JikoPower
Michael Jooste, Ryan Ahearn Marene Wiley; UW Foster School of Business, UW Political Economy, UW Mechanical Engineering

At JikoPower, thermoelectric generators harness wasted energy and convert it into electricity to charge cell phones, LED lights, and other small devices. By doing this, JikoPower is able to provide safe, sustainable energy to people around the world.

$10,000 Second Place Prize

Sponsored by WRF Capital

 Decaf Style
Chun-Chia Kao, Archana Narayan, Yu-Liang Liu, Muhamad Said, Matthew Willett; UW Chemical Engineering, UW Foster School of Business

Decaf Style: Decaf On The Way to Go is currently developing new natural and cost-effective materials that provide instant beverage decaffeination without use of chemicals or affecting the taste.

$7,520.16 Third Place Prize

Sponsored by Friends of the BPC

MultiModal Health
Brian Mogen, Lars Crawford, Tyler Libey, Dimitrios Gklezakos; UW Bioengineering, UW Neurobiology, UW Computer Science & Engineering

MultiModal Health develops connected platforms using affordable sensing and analytic technology to understand and improve health for everyone.

$5,000 Fourth Place Prize

Sponsored by Fenwick & West

Engage
Emily Willard, Katherine Brandenstein; WSU Bioengineering

Engage develops medical technology for developing countries with a shortage of resources, initially through the product SafeShot to reduce the spread of bloodborne diseases.

$5,000 Big Picture Prizes

Created to reward student teams in the BPC for their exceptional work in several distinct categories, the $5,000 Big Picture and Best Idea prizes are selected by a special group of judges during the Investment Round.

AARP Foundation Prize

Targeted for teams that best address the challenges faced by low-income seniors: affordable age-in-place housing, affordable healthy food, increased income, and the impact of isolation on physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Winners of this prize will be considered by AARP for follow-on investment.

MultiModal Health

Brian Mogen, Lars Crawford, Tyler Libey, Dimitrios Gklezakos; UW Bioengineering, UW Neurobiology, UW Computer Science & Engineering

MultiModal Health develops connected platforms using affordable sensing and analytic technology to understand and improve health for everyone.

UIEvolution Internet of Things (IoT) Prize

Recognizes a business venture that has incorporated new products or services that contribute to the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem—devices, vehicles, infrastructure and/or other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity—that enables these objects to collect and exchange data to create new consumer experiences.

Safe-Fur

Ipolitas Dunaravich, Ashley Smith, Javier Schialer, Ashley Smith, Alex Zhouk, Sebastian Schialer; UW Foster School of Business

The world’s first self-recharging implantable GPS, created to effectively help recover lost or stolen pets.

WinWin Tri-Sector Prize

Awarded to a for-profit venture with a product or service that creates a win-win-win in the private, public and social sectors. An example of this is Coinstar, which processed $37 billion in coins for consumers, collected $75 million for nonprofits, and saved over $2 billion for the US Mint—creating a win for all three sectors.

Engage

Emily Willard, Katherine Brandenstein; WSU Bioengineering

Engage develops medical technology for developing countries with a shortage of resources, initially through the product SafeShot to reduce the spread of bloodborne diseases.

Wells Fargo Foundation Clean Tech Prize

Goes to a venture with products, services, or processes that harness renewable materials and energy sources, dramatically reduce the use of natural resources, and cut or eliminate emissions and wastes.

Ionic Windows
Anthony Moretti, Ian Hochstein; UW Chemical Engineering, UW Foster School of Business

Ionic Windows provides membranes to flow battery manufacturers that enable a 25 percent capital cost reduction, making grid-scale renewable energy economically viable.

$2,500 Best Idea Prizes

REI Best Retail Innovation Idea

Recognizes a venture that generates value through the delivery of goods and/or services, with an emphasis on customer service.

Decaf Style
Chun-Chia Kao, Archana Narayan, Yu-Liang Liu, Muhamad Said, Matthew Willett; UW Chemical Engineering, UW Foster School of Business

Decaf Style: Decaf On The Way to Go is currently developing new natural and cost-effective materials that provide instant beverage decaffeination without use of chemicals or affecting the taste.

eBay Best Marketplace Idea

Targeted for teams creating a commerce or payments platform for communities of buyers, sellers or businesses.

Scholarship Junkies
David Coven, Emily Majors, Mikael Hernandez; UW Mechanical Engineering, UW Chinese Language and Literature, UW Communications, UW Applied Physics

Students helping provide free, top quality support for anyone striving to fund their college success.

Accenture Best Consumer Product Idea

For a venture that offers a compelling new consumer product, focusing on a well-defined market.

Coulomb Sea (formerly Smart Charger Pro)

Yanbo Qi, Yutian Qian, Samson Smith, Niccolo Fortes, Nannan Jiang; UW Chemical Engineering

The Smart Charger Pro offers customers a smarter and customizable way to charge their electronic devices; utilizing flexible rates, a quicker charge or a longer life per charge and improved battery health can be achieved while reducing battery waste.

Smukowski Family Best Sustainable Advantage

Recognizes a venture that has incorporated best practices toward resource reduction while bolstering profitability/cost containment.

Aquapel
Di Sun, Mariko Howard, Adam Zhu, Jenny Wang, Bruno Out, David Zerby; UW Electrical Engineering, UW Bothell Electrical Engineering, UW Bothell Mechanical Engineering, UW Japanese, UW Political Science, UW Foster School of Business

Aquapel patented technologies create a self-cleaning system for solar panels by creatively manipulating water droplets movement on the panel’s surface. By doing this, we eliminate labor cost, minimize water usage, and cut back the payback time by 25 percent.

Perkins Coie Best Innovation/Technology Idea

Targeted for a venture that has a new application for a current technology, a disruptive technology, or an idea that represents a substantial improvement in a product or process.

CadaVR
Ryan James, Mark Laughery, Ahmad Aljadaan; UW Biomedical and Health Informatics, UW Human-Centered Design and Engineering

CadaVR is a virtual reality platform to help teach students anatomy and physiology. We like to call it a living cadaver lab because it gives students a hands-on learning experience like a physical cadaver lab, and will simulate things that a physical cadaver lab cannot, such as the heart beating normally and pathologically.

Cambia Health Solutions Best Health/Healthcare Idea

Recognizes a venture that offers new solutions or approaches to address health outcomes and/or improve the quality or efficiency of healthcare delivery.

Z-ion+ Technologies

Marvin Mecwan, Ruying Chen, Sabrina Kamran, Marleny Santos; UW Bioengineering, UW Pharmacology, UW Foster School of Business

Z-ion+ technologies utilizes patent-pending technology to make non-stick, long-lasting, durable coatings that can be applied to any vascular medical device to prevent complications due to blood clots.

DLA Piper Idea for the Future

For a venture that has a long-time horizon, but is worth waiting for.

MetRS
Christopher Joyce, Ryan Delacruz, Colin Johnston, Omeed Faghih; UW Biochemistry, UW Foster School of Business, UW Pharmacy

MetRS has discovered new antibiotics that have great potency against drug-resistant bacteria like MRSA and Staph. If approved this drug could save approximately $27 million in healthcare costs and 55 lives daily.

The post $85,000 awarded to students’ new ventures appeared first on Foster Blog.

Emily Willard (left) and Katherine Brandenstein (right) of team Engage display the prototype for the SafeShot, a device to sterilize needles and prevent the spread of bloodborne pathogens.

Eighteen teams of excited students clustered together in the University of Washington’s Dempsey Hall. The students put up posters and perfectly curated prototype displays as the start time of the inaugural Health Innovation Challenge on March 3, 2016 approached. They were joined by nearly 120 health professionals, CEOs and technology experts, who were on hand as judges at the HIC.

Dean Jim Jiambalvo, welcoming the group to the event, talked briefly about the future of healthcare. “We’re all worried about the high cost of treatment — healthcare is over 17% of GDP. We know that many people have incomplete coverage, there’s a shortage of primary care professionals, and we have an aging population. But the hope for the future comes from video consultations with healthcare providers, wearable devices that monitor our health, robotic surgical devices, using Twitter to track flu outbreaks, and advances in secure electronic health records. We’re here because we all have a common desire to change health and healthcare for the better. And I take personal pleasure in seeing the creativity and ingenuity of our students.”

The creativity and ingenuity was in full display. Some students wore lab coats, others looked ready to head to the gym in sleek athletic apparel. They represented the wide gamut of the health innovation industry – some students tackled access to fitness, others are getting ready to pitch their allergy alert systems and new biocompatible materials for 3D printing tissue.

The Challenge gave students the opportunity for feedback through one-on-one interactions with judges during the tradeshow-style product demonstration phase, as well as a chance to address the entire crowd with on-stage 60-second pitches.

Engage, a Washington State University team, won the $10K Hollomon Family grand prize for their idea to prevent the spread of bloodborne pathogens as a result of contaminated injections. The $5K Herbert B. Jones Foundation second place prize went to UW’s miPS, which preserves and stores iPS cells for stem cell regeneration, and the $2.5K CoMotion third place prize to UW’s MultiModal Health, which uses an engaging software program to measure physical rehabilitation progress.

The crowd was abuzz with the electricity of new ideas and hope for the future of health and healthcare. It’s clear that this is only the beginning of what will be a long-running innovation competition, and Seattle’s health industry professionals could not be more ready.

The post New Health Innovation Challenge launches appeared first on Foster Blog.

The UW Startup Job Fair gets underway with tables labeled with 32 company names you’ve probably never heard of: FlyHomes, AnswerDash, Saltbox. But that’s the point – these are early-stage companies poised for the next phase of growth.

The Seattle entrepreneurs who’ve come to recruit are dressed casually, a hub of T-shirts and jeans in the midst of a suit-filled business school. They’re at the University of Washington looking for students to fill roles from business strategy and social media interns to marketing directors and “growth hackers.”

But to Joyce Tang, a senior international business and informatics student in the honors Lavin Entrepreneurship Program, the UW Startup Job Fair is more than an opportunity for a job. It’s a chance to create connections to the high-growth firms that make up the Seattle startup ecosystem.

“It has such a different vibe than the regular job fairs,” Tang said. “There’s a really strong connection you build with the people you meet because they’re so excited about you and their company.”

While recruiters dominate at most job fairs, the UW Startup Job Fair featured 18 CEO/founders and 10 CTOs, CMOs, COOs, and CSOs. For Seattle startup Azuqua, that’s customer success manager Claire Korner Machado, who graduated from the Foster School of Business with a marketing degree and entrepreneurial experience. She found her place at Azuqua through the 2014 UW Startup Job Fair, becoming the sixth employee at the data and process integration platform company.

In the two years since Machado joined the team, the company has grown to 26 employees, and she has thrived in that whirlwind of growth. She’s still heavily involved in helping grow the team, helping to build Azuqua’s new California location.

“When I first joined Azuqua, I was looking for a startup that was growing,” Machado said. “It’s so fun to get new people on board who are excited about the product and our traction.”

At other career fairs she’s attended for Azuqua, students aren’t sure whether a startup would be a good fit. At the UW Startup Job Fair, students are hungry to experience the startup lifestyle and the growth and opportunity that come along with it.

It is a refreshing change of pace, Machado said. The fair offers recruiters a collective of potential hires who are already fascinated by the Seattle startup world and dedicated to jumping into it.

The post Recruiting with a startup twist appeared first on Foster Blog.

A member of the AgriC team displays their prototype of chitin-based plastic.

Plastic made from crustacean shells sits atop a pan of dirt and growing plants. In front of the prototype display, four University of Washington students stand – and are swarmed by judges. Team AgriC is pitching a project taking chitosan – a derivative of chitin, a sugar obtained from the hard outer skeleton of shellfish that is commonly discarded as waste – and using it to produce biodegradable plastic for agricultural use.

AgriC started working on an alternative to plastic mulch contamination as students in fall quarter’s Environmental Innovation Practicum, a class that prepares students to participate in the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge – a competition that took place this year on March 31. Their goal was to show that there’s an alternative to plastic mulching, which produces 900 million pounds of waste each year.

“All we had in the beginning was a research paper stating that plastic could be made from chitosan,” said Daniel Park, a finance and entrepreneurship student on the team. “From that article, the entire team put in a lot of effort to research and find a market, network with professionals, interview potential customers, create a prototype and practice our pitch.”

After months of work, the four students – Park, Moni Pal (economics), Andy Tan (biology) and Jade Xinyao Ding (environmental engineering) – demonstrated their prototype at the Challenge and took home the $15,000 Wells Fargo grand prize. What’s next for the team? Ding says they’re working on continuing to improve the technology with a goal of getting the product onto the market next year.

The Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge is in its eighth year of providing a platform for students seeking to solve the world’s most pressing environmental problems. Along with the $15,000 awarded to AgriC, Ionic Windows – developing membranes for emerging grid-scale energy storage technology – was awarded the $10,000 Herbert B. Jones Foundation second place prize as well as the $5,000 UW Clean Energy Institute Clean Energy Prize. The $5,000 Starbucks third place prize went to ETA1 for their device converting wasted heat energy from engines into electrical energy that increases fuel economy.

The post Crustacean-shell plastic might save the planet appeared first on Foster Blog.