April 14, 2009

University of Colorado team claims national social entrepreneurship competition at Purdue

The Bring Your Own Water Treatment System, which has been used to remove bacterial contamination from surface water in rural Rwanda, won the April 4 event that drew teams from across the nation. Led by students Max Gold and Evan Thomas, the Colorado team claimed the $10,000 first prize and will advance its project, known as the Manna Energy Foundation, to the Global Idea-to-Product competition in November at the University of Texas in Austin.

The University of Virginia won $5,000 for finishing second with ecoMOD Data, a low-cost home energy system used in a Habitat for Humanity house. The team, led by Kate Howling, Matt Cleveland and Francis Tan, also received the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance-Advanced Invention to Venture Workshop.

Third place and the $2,000 prize went to a SolarCycle project developed by a Brown University team that included Corey Goerdt and John Tilleman. The team from the University of California, San Diego also received an in-kind gift from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance for its approach to detect early childhood eye diseases such as cataracts.

In all, a dozen teams competed in annual national event at Discovery Park, including three Purdue teams: This Old Farm, an on-site food processing production that utilizes farm waste; One Step Closer, a service-oriented organization utilizing a Peace Corps model; and SiMetal, which is developing a process to cut the costs of LED computer-chip technology.

The other teams represented Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, EARTH University, Penn State University and the Illinois Institute of Technology.

The teams are encouraged to offer innovative ways for how their product or service can address broader social needs. Student team leaders also are required to show how the product or service can compete locally and even globally.

Nancy Clement, interim director of Purdue's Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, led a workshop on this trend at the academic and industry level in conjunction with the competition.

Event sponsors were the Social Entrepreneurship and Education Consortium, National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, Kauffman Foundation, and a National Science Foundation grant through the University of Texas, Austin.

Writer: Phillip Fiorini, 765-496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu

Source: Nancy Clement, 765-494-9884, nic@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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