A fuel cell that cleans wastewater while producing some energy and a better health monitor for babies are among student projects that will be judged April 27-28 during the Idea to Product® UT Austin Competition.
A $5,000 prize will go to the best of four university teams, which will compete Saturday from 8:15-11:00 a.m. in Room 2.302 of the Applied Computational and Engineering Sciences (ACES) building.
The four finalist teams will be chosen from 10 university teams that will compete during the same time frame Friday in a semifinals competition. The semifinals on April 27 will occur in Room 1.104 of the university’s new Nanoscience and Technology (NST) building.
The competition helps students create new commercialization opportunities based on connecting new technology that they may have developed to real market needs. For each competition round, judges that will include entrepreneurs, engineers and venture capitalists will evaluate team presentations. The teams in this year’s Idea to Product® (I2P) UT Austin Competition include:
• a team working with a fuel system technology for cars that cuts hydrocarbon emissions in half
• a team creating new applications for a permanent anti-microbial surface coating technology; and
• a team presenting their own invention that combines all vital signs in one infant monitor.
The I2P® UT Austin competition began in 2001, and is hosted by the Murchison Chair of Free Enterprise of the university’s College of Engineering and the Technology Entrepreneurship Society. The competition’s success has led to several national and international spin-offs.
