Gary Palin, executive director of the Doherty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, was one of six judges on April 4 for the National Idea to Product Competition for Social Entrepreneurship hosted by the Purdue University.
Fellow judges included Lorene Burkhart of Burkhart Network, Ed Coyle of Georgia Tech University, Michael Menefee of Purdue University, Philip Shelley of Hollister Inc., and Brion St. Amour of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies.
Twelve teams representing Brown University, Earth University, Illinois Institute of Technology, MIT, Purdue University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of California San Diego, University of Colorado Boulder and University of Virginia presented their concepts at the competition.
The Idea to Project Competitions, founded at The University of Texas at Austin by the Chair of Free Enterprise, are early-stage technology commercialization plan competitions that aim for unique product ideas with clear market demand that use innovative technologies. The goal is education and development of the next generation of technology entrepreneurs. The program is particularly interested in matching technologies resulting from a university’s fundamental research programs with potential markets.
The top teams in the competition were:
1st Place – $10,000
University of Colorado Boulder
Manna Foundation
Water purification system – prototype area in place in Rwanda
2nd Place – $5,000
University of Virginia
ecoMOD
Low-cost home energy system – prototyped in Habitat for Humanity house.
3rd Place – $2,000
Brown University
SolarCycle
Solar cooking system – projected for Tanzania
Participation in the 2009 National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance’s (NCIIA) Advanced Invention to Venture workshop were awarded to teams at University of Virginia and University of California San Diego.