Students compete in Rice University Business Competition

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Forty-two teams hailing from some of the world's top universities will vie for more than $1 million in prizes at the 16th annual Rice Business Plan Competition at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business April 14-16.

New this year are three cash prizes of $100,000, $25,000 and $10,000 that will be awarded by sponsor Cisco, which is offering three Cisco Internet of Everything (IoE) Innovation Challenge prizes. For the second year, teams will compete for the People's Choice Competition that challenges the spirit of each university. Team members, fellow students, alumni, family and friends can vote for their favorite team via a Facebook survey. To vote, go here, beginning Thursday, March 24.

The teams for this year's competition were chosen from nearly 400 entrants to compete in four categories: life sciences; information technology/Web/mobile; energy/clean technology/sustainability; and other. The winner will take home a grand prize valued at more than $450,000, including seed funding and the opportunity to ring the closing bell at NASDAQ Marketsite.

Judges select the winner based on the company that represents the best investment opportunity.

"The true measure of success for the Rice Business Plan Competition is the number of teams that launch, raise funding and go on to succeed in their business," said Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, which hosts the event. "The competition has served as the launch pad for a great number of successful entrepreneurial ventures, and the success rate exceeds the national average.

More than 161 former competitors have gone on to successfully launch their ventures and are still in business today and another 15 have successfully sold their ventures. Past competitors have raised in excess of $1.3 billion in funding and created more than 2,000 new jobs.

"Innovation and entrepreneurship are the driving factors for economic growth in the United States," Burke said. "We are pleased to do our part to support these young entrepreneurs who are willing to take risks to commercialize technologies that not only drive economic growth, but also lead to advances in health care, energy and other improvements in the lives of all people."

More than 140 corporate and private sponsors support the business plan competition, which includes 275 judges from the investment sector and awards of more than $1 million in prizes. Top prizes include the $250,000 Investment Grand Prize from The GOOSE Society of Texas, the OWL Investment Prize of 200,000, the $50,000 U.S. Department of Energy Clean Energy Prize and two additional new prizes the TiE $100,000 Investment Prize and the $25,000 Rice School of Engineering Innovation Prize.

The competition takes place in McNair Hall on the Rice campus, 6100 Main St.

TEAM NAME SCHOOL NAME

Arovia Rice University

Ascent Technologies The University of Chicago

BioAesthetics Tulane University of Louisiana

BlueWave Cleaning System University of Florida

Bold Diagnostics Northwestern University

Cemsica University of Pennsylvania

Crossdeck Harvard University

CrystalE Case Western Reserve University

D&P Bioinnovations Tulane University of Louisiana

DV Tech University of Louisville

Electrospun Nanotechnologies Stony Brook University

Eventigrate The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

EximChain Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ez-kie University of California, Los Angeles

Flat Medical National Taiwan University, Taiwan

Gecko Robotics Carnegie Mellon University

Grow Bioplastics The University of Tennessee

Hazel Technologies Northwestern University

Hygia Sanitation Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

Let's Chat Arizona State University

Leuko Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lumenostics Georgia Institute of Technology

MDAR Technologies Northwestern University

Modvion Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Neopenda Columbia University

Neurable University of Michigan

Oncolinx Dartmouth College

PalpAid Technologies Carnegie Mellon University

PathoVax Harvard University

PreDxion Bio University of Michigan

Pro-Arc Diagnostics Washington University in St. Louis

RightBiotic Birla Institute of Technology and Science, India

Sensytec University of Houston

Skylark Wireless Rice University

SurgiNet Northwestern University

Tembo Education The University of Tampa

Torr Energy Massachusetts Institute of Technology

TriFusion Devices Texas A & M University

VenoStent Vanderbilt University

Vibronix Purdue University

VivImmune University of Arkansas

YouRefund The University of Texas at Austin