Purdue Student Startups Awarded $100K

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Five Purdue University student startups have earned a total of $75,000 in cash prizes and another $30,000 worth of in-kind gifts for creating products that have the potential to be developed commercially. 

The students took part in the 33^rd annual Burton D. Morgan Business Model Competition. Sixty teams involving 132 students began the competition in October. The final round was held in late April.

“This is another wonderful opportunity for our student entrepreneurs to shine,” said Arnold Chen, managing director of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship. “The Purdue entrepreneurship ecosystem provides numerous opportunities for students to build businesses and learn successful approaches.”

Here are the top five:

• First Place: Glimpse ($20,000 prize) – The company connects brands to vetted short-term rental properties for product placements.
• Second Place: Neurava ($15,000) – The team developed a detection device to give control back to patients with uncontrolled epilepsy with a warning of a potential sudden unexpected death, a risk in epilepsy.
• Third Place: BrainChild ($10,000) – It created a digital platform designed to provide a convenient approach for student innovators to build their entrepreneurial dream teams at their university.
• Fourth Place: NeoNatura ($7,500) – The crew created a technology in development enabling rapid, easy and inexpensive preparation of water-soluble nanoemulsions with an essential oil.
• Fifth Place: Invoke Innovations ($5,000) – A device design that uses sensors to monitor workplace ergonomics and prevent injuries.

In addition to the cash prizes, the winners also receive in-kind assistance, such as legal advice.

The Burton D. Morgan Foundation says it has awarded $2 million in total cash prize money for the competition since its inception in 1987.

In the past five years, three people taking part in the competition have been named to Forbes 30 under 30 list.