Engineering students represent College at annual business competition
Beginning in September 2020 and concluding on April 14, 2021, 120 students and 70 teams from across campus participated in the competition. The event encourages students to develop their unique business ideas into novel products or services, and into a profitable business. Student teams, or startups, learn how to develop an effective business model while competing for cash prizes.
The competition was conducted entirely virtually — teams were provided virtual business model workshops, seminars and training through the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship. A group of Purdue alumni entrepreneurs and venture capitalists evaluated the final business models and selected five finalists. The finalists will split $92,500 to support their businesses. The Purdue Engineering students and their teams include:
Finalist Teams
1st place: AeonCharge by Laegacy, Inc., an aggregation platform using proprietary technology to provide for the upgrade and streamlined management of electric vehicle chargers ($40,000). The Purdue Engineering team member is Dwi Sutandar (BSChE'20; bottom row in photo).
2nd place: Aura Training Systems LLC is a dynamic in-flight task training tool using computer vision and machine learning to collect valuable data for use by pilots of rotary or fixed-wing aircraft ($25,000). The Purdue Engineering team member is Mahdi Al-Husseini, a graduate student in electrical engineering and COO of Aura Training Systems LLC.
3rd place: Hippo Straw LLC engineered a sustainable, low-cost biodegradable plastic straw using water hyacinth cellulose ($15,000). The Purdue Engineering team member is Conner Poort, a senior in environmental and ecological engineering.
4th place: ParkOut is a centralized digital marketplace for event parking or tailgating ($7,500). The Purdue Engineering team member is Ravinderjit Singh, an MD-PhD candidate in biomedical engineering.
In addition, EdVizion, a service increasing student exposure to STEAM (Science, Technology, Liberal Arts, and Math) careers, received the Social Innovation Award ($1,000) and the Schurz Best Female-Founded Team ($8,000). The team members are Engineering students Lina Aboulmouna (BSChE'20), and Anan Sheth, who will graduate in August 2021 with a degree in civil engineering.
Learn more about the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship
Writer: Ashvini Malshe, amalshe2@berkeley.edu
Source: Purdue News Service, Burton D. Morgan Business Model Competition awards over $100,000 to Purdue student startups; and Emily Bear, knight67@purdue.edu