Oliver Weigand, a senior computer science and engineering major, Will Howard and Troy Palley both electrical engineering majors representing the WVU Amateur Radio Club won the first place vote.
West Virginia University’s LaunchLab Network hosted its first Student Organization Pitch Competition to encourage students to share their ideas to spark social entrepreneurship and change. The top three teams were awarded money to fund their projects.
Six student organization teams pitched products and businesses to a packed house, then the judges solicited audience feedback in selecting the winners of the competition. The judges for the event were Cory Dennison, CEO and president of Vision Shared; Anna Carrier, owner of The Cupcakerie; Corey Farris, WVU dean of students; John Williams, staff attorney at the WVU College of Law; and Miguel Henriquez, SGA senator and physics student.
Will Howard and Troy Palley, electrical engineering majors, and Oliver Weigand, a senior computer science and engineering major, represented the WVU Amateur Radio Club to win first place and $1,500. The team pitched its need for a new communications trailer, which will allow them to broadcast in areas where cell phone coverage is weak. This has been a significant problem for West Virginians in times of crisis.
Courtney Burgazli, a second-year student in the WVU School of Pharmacy, took home second place and $750 for the WVU chapter of The American Geriatrics Society.
“I hope the audience took away the potential we have in our university and in our state for geriatrics and inter-professional education,” Burgazli said. “Being a new organization, we really needed funding to get out into the community and host a lot of events. Our next step is to host the geriatric Olympics and then go on to host events at the senior recreation center.”
Third place winner Alex Fisher, an Entrepreneurship and Innovation student in the College of Business and Economics, took home $500 for his club’s innovative fundraising idea, “Morgantownopoly.”
“We wanted to try a little different take on the pitch competitions this time” said Carrie White, director of WVU’s LaunchLab. “Social Entrepreneurship is very important to our students, enough that many of them have joined or started organizations to effect social change. They have great ideas and pitched them extremely well to the judges.”
The Student Organization Pitch Competition is the fourth of five pitch competitions to be offered by the LaunchLab Network this academic year. In addition to preparing WVU students for business and commercialization, these pitch competitions help them prepare for national competitions hosted by prominent business schools and corporations in which the judges are often real potential investors.
“The state of West Virginia should be very proud of the young people who are here at WVU, the great job that they do, and the great job that the LaunchLab does,” Dennison said.
The LaunchLab Network of applied innovation centers for students is part of the WVU Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship Applied Ecosystem, a university-wide web of centers, offices and programs that fosters and supports innovation and entrepreneurship among WVU students, faculty and staff while engaging the statewide community.
Other areas include IDEA Faculty Fellows, WVU Women’s Business Center, Davis Young Innovators program, WVU Extension Service, Brickstreet Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Patent and Trademark Resource Center, Health Sciences Innovation Center, Legal Clinics, Media Innovation Center, Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the MakerLab and Technology Transfer.
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cw/02/21/18
CONTACT: Carrie White, Director of WVU LaunchLab
304.293.939; cwhite17@mail.wvu.edu
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