UK Team Earns Third Place in Alltech Competition

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 29, 2014) — A team of students from the University of Kentucky brought home third place honors at the second annual Alltech Innovation Competition held this past weekend at the Newtown Pike campus of Bluegrass Community and Technical College (BCTC). The event drew business venture ideas from eight Kentucky universities.

UK's Arymza Technologies, presented by a team of three graduate students, uses enzymes that accelerate the processing of starch, reducing energy costs and the need for hazardous chemicals. Once broken down, the simple sugars from the starch can be used as a food ingredient or as feedstock for microbes in the production of bioethanol.

The UK team is made up of MBA candidates Miguel Doughlin and Erica Clark, along with Ph.D. candidate Satrio Husodo.

A team of four graduate students from the University of Louisville captured first place honors at the Alltech competition this year, while a team of four undergraduates from Morehead State University took second place.

A team of students from UK, including several MBA students from the Gatton College of Business and Economics, earned first place honors at the initial Alltech Innovation Competition in 2013.

“What if, as a society, we took seriously our obligation to help our young people become educated?” said Augusta Julian, president of BCTC, the host of the 2014 Alltech Innovation Competition.  “Partnership between business and education is exactly the effort we all need to be involved in.”

Initially conceived by Alltech founder and CEO Pearse Lyons as a means of inspiring students to innovation and entrepreneurship while contributing to solutions for the socioeconomic challenges in Eastern Kentucky, the Innovation Competition was announced at the 2012 Alltech Symposium.

“We look forward to seeing all of these ideas realized,” said Lyons. “Together, if we keep brilliant young minds like this in Kentucky, innovation will indeed race forward, making Kentucky an even better place to live, work, raise a family or build a business.”

MEDIA CONTACT:  Carl Nathe, 859-257-3200; carl.nathe@uky.edu.