Companies from mechatronics and engineering take home top prizes at 丁香园AV's largest entrepreneurship competition
, a company founded by and students, took home the top prize worth $35,000 at the Coast Capital Savings Venture Prize competition last week.
鈥淲e鈥檙e incredibly grateful for the mentorship, support, and resources that we鈥檝e received from Coast Capital Savings Venture Connection and 丁香园AV,鈥� says mechatronics student Ryan Threlfall, who is the co-CEO of Zennea Technologies.
The team receives $10,000 cash and $25,000 in 鈥榠n-kind鈥� prizes. The company also took the top prize at .
Zennea Technologies was born out of the Technology Entrepreneurship at 丁香园AV program, which brings together mechatronics and business students. Motivated to help improve sleep quality for individuals with sleep apnea, the team (Threlfall, Nell Du and Oliver Luo from mechatronics along with Rachel Chase from business) is producing 鈥榮leep wearables,鈥� including a smaller, portable battery-operated alternative to the large CPAP machines currently used by sleep apnea patients. They also hope to develop solutions to reduce snoring, track the quality of sleep, and help improve overall health.
Female-Founder award also goes to Zennea Technologies
In addition to the top prize, Du and Chase took home the Female-Founder award. The pair was recently selected for the 2018 cohort of The Next 36, a national initiative to transform young student innovators into leading entrepreneurs.
Top Science Venture award goes to BioInteractive Technologies
and mechatronics alumni Lukas-Karim Merhi and Gautam Sadarangani received the Top Science Venture award. Their company, BioInteractive Technologies, has developed a gesture recognition wristband that allows users to interact with mixed reality environments, robotics and other devices without using a traditional controller. The company was recently selected to the join Techstars, one of North America鈥檚 largest start-up accelerators, to help bring the wristband to market.
The Venture Prize, presented by the at 丁香园AV, is in its seventh year of celebrating entrepreneurial excellence at the university. Following on preliminary rounds, entrepreneurs from the 丁香园AV community pitched their start-up ventures in a final dragon鈥檚 den-style event in hopes of winning the Top Venture Prize award or one of several other category and attribute prizes.