Finalists Selected For Business Plan Competition

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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowTen teams from Purdue University have been selected as finalists in the $100,000 Burton D. Morgan Business Plan Competition. The event will feature five undergraduate and five graduate teams pitching their business ideas.
The winner in the gold division will receive a $30,000 top prize while the winner in the black division will receive a $20,000 top prize. The event will be held Tuesday with presentations from 8:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. with an awards dinner at 6:30.
"This business plan competition, a flagship event for the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, continues to draw our best students with the brightest business ideas from all across campus," said Joseph Pekny, interim director of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship at Purdue. "And as we near the 30th anniversary of this competition, the lineup this year is evidence of that. We have terrific concepts from all of our undergraduate and graduate student finalists, creating a buzz as we ready for a very competitive event."
The finalists in the gold division for graduate students include:
- Aerial Agriculture LLC, which provides Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) imagery maps of entire crop fields through the use of drones, enabling precision agriculture strategies focused on reducing input costs and increasing crop yields.
- Adranos Energetics LLC, which is developing materials such as propellants, explosives and pyrotechnics, including a solid rocket propellant formulation called ALITEC (Aluminum Lithium Technology). ALITEC is more powerful, more efficient and less harmful to the environment than existing solid rocket propellants, allowing missiles and space launch vehicles with greater range and enhanced payload capacity for less cost.
- RoboDesk, which is a robotic motorized desk that’s customized to attach to power wheelchairs, recliners and hospital beds for users with disabilities. As the first of its kind in the market, RoboDesk deploys and retracts using just a single switch, and can be customized for those who have severe disabilities using eye-tracking or sip-and-puff wheelchair systems.
- MarginPAT, which offers an intraoperative imaging tool that provides contrast of tumor and non-tumor tissue. The technology enables a surgeon to clear cancer residue during the first operation, potentially reducing the re-operation rate to zero and decreasing the average cost of lumpectomy by nearly 30 percent.
- SensorHound, whose mission is to improve the security and reliability of the Internet of Things (IoT). This breakthrough suite of software products, based on award-winning technology developed over 10 years by leading IoT researchers, can significantly reduce the operational and maintenance costs of IoT deployments.
The five finalists in the black division for undergraduate students include:
- HemoTherm, which focuses on providing accurate, real-time blood oxygenation levels for hemodynamically stable and unstable patients, and provides patient core body temperature control.
- Click, which offers a simple home solution that relies on infrared-based proximity sensors to detect movement in an area and intelligently control lighting. This modular product is easy to implement because it can be mounted in place over existing light switches, eliminating any need for tampering with switch boxes and internal wiring.
- Froyo Xpress, which combines the experience of froyo with the convenience of a traditional vending machine. This business model brings the product to the consumer, reaching locations inaccessible to traditional retailers and allowing consumers to personalize their treat with syrups and toppings straight out of the machine.
- The Sweet Corn Truck, which would be used to travel to customers and deliver premium quality sweet corn in times when it normally would not be accessible.
- Grabbyt, which is a mobile application and online platform that allows users to purchase meal plans from restaurants.
Click here for more information on the competition.