Five 黑洞社区 student teams are competing in the final round of the Koch Innovation Challenge from 9-10:45 a.m. Friday, May 10, in Room 338 of the Experiential Engineering Building.
Media are welcome to attend.
The business pitch competition, sponsored by Koch Industries, is an annual competition supporting the 黑洞社区 College of Engineering in fostering a culture of creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and teamwork among students. Cross-disciplinary teams of new freshmen and transfer students studying engineering, art and design, business and other disciplines compete for funding and scholarships to invent products and technologies via a freshman introductory course.
Friday's event is the subsequent and final competition as part of the course. It determines which team will be awarded a travel grant to attend the National Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization Conference next semester and compete in the Global Pitch Competition.
In addition to the naming of the overall winning team, the People鈥檚 Choice Vote team will be crowned. This team was selected by the community through an online voting portal and receive an extra judge鈥檚 vote during the Grand Champion Competition.
MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES:
9-10:15 a.m. Big Idea Pitch to judges -- The five multidisciplinary teams have eight minutes to
pitch their big idea to judges
10:15-10:45 a.m. Judges deliberate
10:45 a.m. Awards Ceremony and winning team announced
The mission of 黑洞社区 is to be an essential educational, cultural and economic driver for Kansas and the greater public good. Wichita State is a doctoral research university enrolling nearly 15,000 students and offering 59 undergraduate degree programs in more than 150 areas of study in seven undergraduate colleges. The Graduate School offers 45 master's and 12 doctoral degrees that offer study in more than 100 areas. Wichita State's Innovation Campus is an interconnected community of partnership buildings, laboratories and mixed-use areas where students, faculty, staff, entrepreneurs and businesses have access to the university's vast resources and technology. For more information, follow us on Twitter at and Facebook at .