Two teams from ECE were included in 42 groups invited to participate in the Rice Business Plan Competition April 11-13 in Houston, Texas. 

The Rice Business Plan Competition has been described as the Super Bowl and World Series, combined, by Fortune and CNN Money.  This year, more than 600 business plans were submitted to the world’s richest and largest business plan competition.  Bearing Analytics, a commercialized technology developed by Professor Dimitrios Peroulis’ group, and SensorHound Innovations, a group advised by Professor Saurabh Bagchi, were both invited to attend. 

Bearing Analytics was a semi-finalist, placing in the top 15 teams out of 42.  The team collected $3,000 for the best written business plan out of all 42; they were also awarded $1,250 for a fifth place finish in the semi-final flight (group).  Bearing Analytics includes three Ph.D. candidates and an undergraduate student from ECE: Lokesh Gupta, Andrew Kovacs, Anurag Garg, and Chris Ochynski.

SensorHound Innovations was awarded $600 for their third place finish in the shark tank round.  The shark tank round is for teams not advancing to the semi-finals.  SensorHound Innovations team members are: Vinai Sundaram, Ph.D. candidate in ECE; Matthew Tancreti, Ph.D. candidate in ECE; and Supradeep Dutta, Ph.D. candidate in the Krannert School of Management.  Saurabh Bagchi, associate professor of ECE, and Patrick Eugster, associate professor of computer science, are team advisors.