Purdue Teams Heading to Global Competition

Tri-D Dynamics won the Burton D. Morgan Business Plan Competition's Gold Division last week.

Two teams of students will represent Purdue University next month in the annual Rice Business Plan Competition in Houston. The teams are among 42 from around the world that will compete for more than $1.5 million in cash and prizes.

PathVis, a team of graduate and undergraduate students from the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, will take part in the competition with their smartphone technology that monitors and tracks pathogen outbreaks. Purdue says the technology will provide real-time data on disease detection. 

Purdue startup Tri-D Dynamics LLC will demonstrate its process to develop lighter and more efficient rocket engines. The university says Tri-D Dynamics co-founders Alex Finch and Deepak Atyam "were behind the first 3-D-printed and tested rocket engine from a university group in the world."

Tri-D Dynamics and PathVis took first and second place prizes, respectively, in the Gold Division of last week’s Burton D. Morgan Business Plan Competition at Purdue. The three-day Rice Business Plan Competition is set to begin April 6.