Twenty-three Student Entrepreneurs Compete in UK Venture Challenge Saturday

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 28, 2014) – Twenty three undergraduate and graduate students will compete in the 3^rd annual UK Venture Challenge Saturday, March 1, at the James. F. Hardymon Theater in the Davis Marksbury Building on Rose Street. The students are competing for $3,000 in scholarship prizes and the opportunity to represent UK at the state competition in April.

The competition begins at 9 a.m. and the public is invited to attend. The awards ceremony is expected to begin at 1:05 p.m.

Venture Challenge provides students an opportunity to show off their innovative and entrepreneurial spirit and get real world experience as they develop their ideas into potential startup ventures, prepare a written proposal, and pitch their venture to judges from the local entrepreneurial community.

This year’s teams are as follows:

Undergraduate Teams

Dream Fit – Daniel White, mechanical engineering junior
 

Easy Conference – Richard Graff, computer science sophomore and Ethan Palmer, electrical engineering sophomore
 

Reinforcer – Bryan Wright, architecture junior

Shouter – Josiah Hanna, computer science senior; Charlie Effinger, computer science senior; Craig Schmidt, computer science senior

The Soccer Lifestyle – Chris Lee, marketing and management senior

Wasio VR – Charlie Miles, electrical engineering senior

Graduate Teams

Arymza Technologies – Satrio Husodo, molecular and cellular biochemistry Ph.D. candidate; Miguel Doughlin, MBA candidate; Erica Clark, MBA candidate

The Innovation Pharm – Huy Ngo, pharmaceutical sciences, CET, Ph.D. candidate; Rene Gonzalez, pharmaceutical sciences, CET, Ph.D. candidate; Matt McErlean, pharmaceutical sciences, drug discovery, Ph.D. candidate; Jarrod Williams, Pharmaceutical Sciences, CET, Ph.D. candidate.

MosquitoTech – Alex Blasingame, MBA candidate; Justin Johnson, MBA candidate; Rob Arnold, MBA candidate.

Vet Detective – Alexandra Hart, agricultural economics senior; Amber Mills, MBA candidate; Vladimir Goussev, MBA candidate; Stephen Stone, MBA candidate

The undergraduate team judging panel includes: Randall Stevens, founder and CEO of Punndit; Harvie Wilkinson MBA director, Gatton College of Business and Economics; and Matthew Wiley, founder and CEO of BLOC Marketing.

Judging the graduate teams are: Stephanie P. Herron, president and CEO, Markey Cancer Foundation; Alan Stein, founder, president and CEO, SteinGroup LLC; and Lee T. Todd Jr. president emeritus, University of Kentucky.

Thanks to sponsors, UK Venture Challenge is able to provide $3,000 in scholarship prize money that will be shared by the winning students. The 1^st place undergraduate team and 1^st place graduate team each receives $1,000. The 2^nd place undergraduate team and 2^nd place graduate team each receives $500. And, the online top vote winner receives $50.

For the third straight year our lead sponsor is the Bluegrass Business Development Partnership, an economic development partnership that includes the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, Commerce Lexington, and the University of Kentucky. New sponsors this year are the Gatton College of Business and Economics and the College of Communication and Information.

UK Venture Challenge is organized by iNET, the Innovation Network for Entrepreneurial Thinking hosted by the College of Communication and Information, with the Von Allmen Center for Entrepreneurship / Lexington Innovation and Commercialization Center in the Gatton College of Business and Economics, and the Big Blue Starters student entrepreneur organization.

MEDIA CONTACT: Deb Weis at debweis@uky.edu