Slideshow
Hosted by the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship, the four-part Innovation Challenged kicked off with The Minute Pitch on Wednesday, Oct. 25. In front of an audience of nearly 200 students, facult

Hosted by the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship, the four-part Innovation Challenged kicked off with The Minute Pitch on Wednesday, Oct. 25. In front of an audience of nearly 200 students, faculty, staff and supporters, 22 teams gave 60-second pitches of their venture idea. With assistance from the sponsors, EY and Bud Robertson (Isenberg ’72), $2,500 is prize money was awarded to the first-, second- and third-place teams and the audience choice selection.

Easy Lock, developed by Peter Tao (biochemistry and molecular biology) and Mike Keegan (computer science), took home first-place honors and the audience choice award. It’s premise is replacing keys to cars, homes or offices with facial recognition software.

KINASE INC., presented by Byung Kim and Yubing Sun (professors, mechanical and industrial engineering) Nariman Banaei (Ph.D. student, mechanical and industrial engineering) and Amir Ali Jazayeri (MBA student, business statistics, Hofstra University), was awarded second place. It’s premise is a low-cost, point of care platform for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

TernAway, created by Austin Rohlfing (actuarial mathematics), Paul Maurais (computer science), Noah Friedman (management) and Sepehr Sokhanvar (computer science) earned third place. TernAway.com is an online travel bank that matches customers a percentage of their savings towards travel.

Next up in the four-part Innovation Challenge series is The Seed Pitch, set for Wednesday, Nov. 29. This competition simulates the closed-door pitch process and $15,000 in prizes will be awarded as determined by the panel of judges. Submissions close November 13.

Watch: https://youtu.be/tpA3IwqBLwE