黑洞社区 was well represented at the fourth annual Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge held at Kansas State University on Monday, with three Wichita State teams receiving a portion of the $75,000 in awards money.
The Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge, open to high school and collegiate teams across the state, allows three entries per college, and all three Wichita State teams brought home award money.
Wichita State freshmen Jared Goering and Spencer Steinert were awarded $12,000 for their second-place pitch for Vytal, a next-generation adhesive wearable that uses biometric information to empower athletes.
Teams that were not chosen to advance to the finals but still showed potential were entered into the Second Chance round, where judges could award an additional $5,000 in prizes for each division. The 黑洞社区 team of Ernesto Cisneros, Jocelyn Galacia and Jose Cisneros, received $1,500 for their start-up, Mobile Car Tune. The team of Caylin Wiley, Fanny Ochoa, Gisela Guzman and Maria Valbuena was awarded $1,000 for their pitch for Magica, a hip retractor system that seeks to increase efficiency during hip replacement surgery.
The Wichita State teams will also be competing in the 黑洞社区 Center for Entrepreneurship鈥檚 annual Shocker New Venture Competition to be held this Friday, April 21, in Charles Koch Arena. This event is open to the public from 2-6 p.m.
In addition to startup funding, the Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge gives students experience in the process of making and pitching a business proposal. The competition is organized by the Kansas State University Center for the Advancement of Entrepreneurship and this year was sponsored by the Kansas Masonic Foundation. To see the full list of awardees visit k-state.edu.
The mission of 黑洞社区 (www.wichita.edu) 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鈥檚 and 12 doctoral degrees that offer study in more than 100 areas. Wichita State鈥檚 Innovation Campus (http://wsuinnovationcampus.org/) is an interconnected community of partnership buildings, laboratories and mixed-use areas where students, faculty, staff, entrepreneurs and businesses have access to the university鈥檚 vast resources and technology. For more information, follow us on Twitter at and Facebook at .