|
1998 MIT $50K Entrepreneurship CompetitionPublic SummariesThese are the public summaries of all entrants of the 1998 $50K Competition. The list includes the team name, primary point of contact, and public summary for each entry. Send changes to 50k-online@mit.edu. |
| Co-Grand Prize Winners | Direct
Hit
Volunteer Community Connection |
| Runner-Up | CarSoft |
| Akamai Technologies | CarSoft |
| Direct Hit | Silicon Test |
| Volunteer Community Connection | WeddingBell.com |
| Beacon Software | Biomedical Modeling Inc. |
| Catalyst Software | Connected Care |
| Cortical Technologies | Ethos Technologies |
| ExoTec, Inc. | Frictionless Commerce |
| NetPecker Inc. | Nettiquin |
| PASS Technology | VIRTMED |
| Access Corporation |
| Elaine Yang, elaine_y@yahoo.com |
| Access Corporation is dedicated toward providing financially self-sufficient solutions to social inequities and problems in the United States today. |
| Adaptive Interfaces |
| Stephen Intille, intille@media.mit.edu |
| Adaptive Interfaces will provide an alternative to existing computer input devices that reduces the danger of repetitive stress injury using flexible hardware and intelligent software. |
| Akash |
| Devabhaktuni Srikrishna, tenali@mit.edu |
| Akash will provide instantaneous connectivity to people on the move. |
| Amplified Technologies |
| Ernest Cuni, eacuni@mit.edu |
| Amplified Technologies will build amplifiers to allow SMR (Specialized Mobile Radio) service providers to increase the geographical range and quality of their transmissions. 900 MHz spectrum, recently auctioned by the FCC for use by SMR service providers, is creating significant transmission problems, and thus a partcular need for our product. |
| AppSource |
| Ira Hochman, ira50k@in-touch.com |
| AppSource Inc's mission is to deliver high quality, state-of-the-art, web based customer support capabilities for commercial customer support organizations. |
| BatFish Solutions |
| Meldon Wolfgang, meldon@mit.edu |
| BatFish Solutions will provide a complete, autonomously-controlled underwater vehicle (AUV) system for bottom mapping and imaging. The autonomous BatFish will employ state-of-the-art acoustic imaging technology while utilizing a system of freely-drifting buoys with hydrophones and global positioning capabilities to determine the exact position of the AUV within the water column. BatFish Solutions will save the bottom-mapper fuel costs associated with towing conventional mapping systems with a ship, while providing the additional advantage of positional accuracy and untethered maneuverability. |
| Beacon Software |
| Eve Phillips, eve@mit.edu |
| Beacon is developing cross-application user interfaces for data analysis software. Our first product will be Visual MATLAB 1.0, a new user interface for MATLAB that will dramatically improve the usability of the underlying application. |
| Beyond2000 Electronics |
| Alexander Shing Shing, ashing@mit.edu |
| Beyond2000 creates consumer electronics that allows for software and hardware upgradebility. Initial focus on multimedia related products. |
| Biomedical Modeling Inc. |
| David Chan, dkchan@mit.edu |
| Biomedial Modeling Inc., BMI, is a technology-based medical service that harnesses rapid prototyping technology to improve surgical outcomes, reduce operating theater time, reduce the number of surgical interventions required in treatment, and reduce time to recovery from invasive surgical procedures. |
| C.M.S. |
| Jason Garoutte, gjason@mit.edu |
| Consolidated Machined Shops(CMS)intends to consolidate the highly fragmented machine shop industry, improving service through economies of scale, application of management techniques, and rapid adoption of technology. |
| Akamai Technologies (formerly Cachet Technologies) |
| Preetish Nijhawan, preetish@mit.edu |
| Scalable Caching and Replication Solutions for High Bandwidth Applications |
| CambridgeNet |
| Amrit Pant, arp@mit.edu |
| To provide optimal internet infrastructure solutions to developing countries. |
| CarSoft |
| Diego Borrego, dborrego@mit.edu |
| CarSoft designs and manufactures a full line of automotive diagnostic tools for novices and experts. CarSoft is "software that lets you know what your car is thinking". |
| Catalyst Software |
| Irfan Virk, ivirk@braintech.com |
| Web based customer interaction software |
| Characters, Inc. |
| Juan Velasquez, jvelas@mit.edu |
| Charcters, Inc. will commercialize new technology derived from research conducted at MIT's Artificial Intelligence laboratory by developing software kits that will provide Internet and application developers the ability to easily create interactive animated characters with individual personalities and emotions. These interactive characters will exhibit sophisticated, life-like behaviors and may be used as online guides, interactive assistants, enhanced game figures, or to otherwise enhance the interactivity of web sites and applications. |
| CheapTalk |
| David Chan, dkchan@mit.edu |
| CheapTalk will provide businesses with targeted, real-time and location-specific advertisement of their products and services by delivering advertising email messages over wireless communication networks to consumers using advertisement-subsidized, digital, cellular phones and PDAs with wireless connectivity. |
| Chi Communications |
| Desmond Chan, desmondc@mit.edu |
| Chi Corporations designs and market Internet Appliances products to serve the ISP and Corporate markets. |
| CineVision Institute |
| Stephen Chadwick, cstephen@mit.edu |
| The CineVision Institute provides tuition in advanced computer rendering and animation techniques, as well as contract based studio productions. Initially targeted at the field of architecture the Institute will later expand to media industry applications including computer animation for movies and television. |
| Cordwainer & Co. |
| Russell Miller, russell@mit.edu |
| Cordwainer & Co. seeks to design the “new-computer”, patent the design, and then license the technical specifications to computer and peripheral makers. We want to make a “new-computer” that will do for hardware what the Apple OS did for software. |
| Cortical Technologies |
| Daniel DiLorenzo, djdilore@alum.mit.edu |
| Cortical Technologies mission is the Development and Marketing of Medical Devices for the Treatment of Neurological Disease. |
| DigiGO |
| Travell Perkins, tperkins@media.mit.edu |
| Many PDAs have proven themselves to be one of the easiest ways to manage text based content on the go. DigiGO will provide a cost effective addon product that will do the same for video/audio content management as well. |
| Direct Hit (formerly Digital Intuition) |
| Gary Culliss, gculliss@directhit.com |
| Direct Hit is an Internet service which re-ranks search engine results according to what people actually select from the search results list. Our technology is complementary to existing search engines and can be added to any portal as a separate service which is technically and financially risk free to the search engine. For more information, see our informational web site at http://www.directhit.com. |
| Dining Spectrum |
| Gerald Lucas, gwlucas@mit.edu |
| Dining Spectrum is a combination on-line restaurant takeout consortium and consumer information resource that will allow urban-based customers to simultaneously access the menus of several participating restaurants and place one or more orders. Dining Spectrum's continually growing database of customers and their accompanying purchasing behavior offers restaurants the unique opportunity to identify individual customers, cultivate and maintain long-term relationships with those customers and customize their advertising and promotional campaigns. |
| Distributed Code Service |
| Bill Tomlinson, badger@media.mit.edu |
| We will create a digital cottage industry for specialty software development by outsourcing subroutines to small-scale programmers and CS students via the Internet. |
| Edge Innovations & Technology, LLC |
| J. Robert Fricke, fricke@ecgcorp.com |
| Application of a novel vibration damping technology to consumer and industrial products including sports equipment, audio speakers, and power hand tools. |
| Emergency Power Services |
| Rob Tagiuri, robtag@mit.edu |
| Inexpensive emergency electrical power service for suburban and rural proffesionals, small businesses, and residential customers. |
| Ensol Corporation |
| Adriana Guzman, atguzman@mit.edu |
| Environmental Solutions Company to remediate Hazardous and Nuclear Waste. |
| ERGO-FORM Custom Products |
| George Homsy, ghomsy@mit.edu |
| Ergonomically Personalized Products, computer designed and manufactured specifically to fit the customer's body form. Information-Technology based, inventoriless manufacturing and distribution network. |
| escalus |
| Oguz Silahtar, oguz@mit.edu |
| Escalus plans to develop Web customer service software for businesses. |
| Ethos Technologies, Inc. (ETI) |
| David A. Casagrande, david@ethosware.com |
| ETI will empower software publishers and vendors to distribute their titles over the Internet by providing a new generation, patent-pending file transfer technology: EthosPath. By initially focusing on this emerging market, and subsequently enabling the delivery of video and music files, ETI intends that EthosPath will become the standard communications system underlying all file transfers over the Internet. ETI -- which has clients using a prototype -- is ready to launch. |
| ExoTec, Inc. |
| thomas pinckney, pinckney@mit.edu |
| ExoTec Inc. produces extremely low cost of ownership computer network servers based on novel MIT research. Each ExoTec product is dedicated to providing a single focused solution rather than acting as a general server platform. This narrow focus allows ExoTec products to do their job substantially more effectively than existing server solutions. |
| Free Lunch Software |
| Scott Blanksteen, sib@mit.edu |
| Free Lunch Software will provide on-line traders with customized real-time performance information on companies, markets and events. FLS' decision support software will empower users to take advantage of time-sensitive market opportunities and further their investing goals. |
| Freedman Learning Institutes |
| Daniel Freedman, dafreedm@mit.edu |
| Freedman Learning Institutes (FLI) is an educational services venture establishing a network of affordable private high schools in the $125 billion secondary school market to improve the quality of education by enhancing curriculum flexibility and employing teachers who are researchers or practitioners in their respective fields. |
| Frictionless Commerce |
| Alex Kleiner, info@frictionless.com |
| Frictionless Commerce will be the premier provider of cooperative agent-based solutions that enable electronic merchants to differentiate themselves through the full expression of their product and service offerings. (www.frictionless.com) |
| Genesys |
| Constantine Papageorgiou, cpapa@ai.mit.edu |
| Implementation of a high-end business software application to improve efficacy and problem solving. |
| Global Network |
| Eric Silberstein, silberst@fas.harvard.edu |
| Global Network seeks to provide unique and valuable localization services by providing a comprehensive solution to U.S. companies seeking to reach international consumers and commercial markets via the World Wide Web. |
| Green Propulsion Technologies |
| Olaf Bleck, bleck@ai.mit.edu |
| We propose to develop, license, and manufacture advanced AC induction motor controllers for electric vehicles. Initially targeting the golf car industry that currently buys $180M of antiquated, poorly performing and inefficient DC brushed motor controllers each year, we will position ourselves and expand to become a forefront component supplier to the international electric vehicle market, worth potentially $50B annually as it emerges in the next two decades. |
| IDTech |
| Bryan Robinson, bsr@mit.edu |
| Novel technologies that address,improve and enhance various aspects of the trade show experience for all parties involved: attendees, exhibitors and organizers |
| imprintables.com |
| David Ching, dching@erols.com |
| To sell promotional products over the Internet. |
| Ethec Inc. (formerly Innovatech: "Turning Garbage Into Gold") |
| Kevin Kelsey, kdkelsey@mit.edu or kkelsey@ethec.com |
| The effects of industrial waste can be seen around the world. Companies pay exorbitant removal fees while superfund and other sites remain contaminated with dangerous materials. Innovatech's ETHEC technology offers a cheap, environmentally friendly solution, turning the world's industrial waste into useful, sellable products. |
| Insignia Inc. |
| Samad Soomro, samad@mit.edu |
| The company will sell T-shirts, sweatshirts, caps, spring jackets, etc., that bear the college/university names or logos,to the students and alumni across North America. |
| International Developers, Inc. |
| Irina V. Deychman, ideychma@emerald.tufts.edu |
| The US is regarded as having the best hospitals in the world, but has surplus capacity. We will refer sufficiently wealthy patients in countries with underdeveloped health care systems to the US hospitals. The company offers Telemedicine services and focuses on global hospital-insurance companies connections. Operations will begin in Russia and expand worldwide. |
| Internet Marketing Research |
| Jason Yang, jcyang@mit.edu |
| Internet Marketing Research (IMR) is a market research company measuring web site usage and popularity for sale to web advertisers and content creators, in a form similar to Nielsen ratings for television. |
| IRI Solutions |
| Steven Lee, sclee@mit.edu |
| Mendel Laboratories |
| Brian Zabel, bazabel@alum.mit.edu |
| Mendel Laboratories' primary line of business will be the development of novel cloning technologies. |
| Micro Motive |
| adam kohorn, akohorn@mit.edu |
| Micro Motive is a venture to create novel minimally invasive surgical devices. These devices will expand on existing implements as well as introduce devices that will offer surgeons solutions to as yet unsolved problems. |
| MIL Digital Garment Labeling Corp. |
| Patrick Meagher, gsd96pm4@gsd.harvard.edu |
| MIL will produce digital, LCD based garment labels that will fulfill the evolving technological image needs of the current and future apparel customer. |
| MolecularWare |
| Seth Taylor, staylor@alum.mit.edu |
| Bringing information to drug discovery. |
| NetIntelligence |
| Rizwan Virk, riz@alum.mit.edu |
| Collaboration for distant workgroups. |
| NetPecker Inc. |
| Gerald Lucas, gwlucas@mit.edu |
| NetPecker is a pay-per-use public Internet access terminal that currently available for use in malls, hotels, restaurants and various other locations. NetPecker kiosks accept various forms of payment and charge customers based on usage time. Users can send or receive e-mail, surf the net or play internet games. |
| New England Abalone Farm |
| Daniel Brooks, dbrooks@mit.edu |
| New England Abalone Farm will cultivate California Red Abalone to cater to New England's sophisticated appetite for quality seafood and to the growing demand overseas. A relative of clams, scallops, octopuses, and squid, abalone are marine shellfish whose meat is highly valued for its delicate flavor and firm texture. |
| Oasis Entertainment |
| Denise Kalule, dkalule@mit.edu |
| OASIS ENTERTAINMENT© provides "western" entertainment facilities throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Entertainment facilities include bars, cocktail lounges, cinemas, game complexes (billiards, bowling, etc.), dance clubs, restaurants, and cafes. OASIS© also aids in the development of entrepreneurs (especially youth) in Africa through internship experiences and support (capital, experience, and education). |
| Omega Drive |
| Mary Tolikas, mtolikas@mit.edu |
| Omega Drive will integrate control algorithms with high efficiency, high speed motors and modular power electronics for the air-conditioning industry. |
| oMNUS Remote Control Systems |
| Touradj Barman, touradj@mit.edu |
| Omnus Remote System's product is designed with one objective in mind: Complete and infinitely adaptive control of your home electronics via a uniquely designed remote control. |
| Partners in Progress |
| Julie Harford, jharford@mit.edu |
Partners in Progress, a nonprofit
organization, builds relationships between corporate employees and community
organizations by promoting and implementing:
|
| PASS Technology Corporation |
| Lawrence Azar, azar@mit.edu |
| PASS Technology Corporation develops and markets innovative instrument for the condition assessment of Civil Infrastructure System. |
| Personal Financial Assistant |
| Robert Rowello, rowello@mit.edu |
| In September 1999, we plan to introduce a suite of portable personal financial assistant (PFA) devices that will allow consumers to perform real-time banking and investment transactions over local digital cellular communications channels. These products will be designed to directly interface with the online banking and electronic commerce infrastructures of most major U.S. retail banks. These small electronic devices will allow consumers to write "electronic checks", transfer funds, trade securities, and receive real-time updated account information. |
| Printed Transistor, Inc. |
| Matthias Wagner, mwagner@mit.edu |
| Printed Transistor, Inc. is the first company focused on providing tools to the rapidly-emerging MACROelectronics industry. The firm will commercialize a technology that enables drastically larger and more flexible displays, sensors, and other large-area electronic devices -- at costs that allow macroelectronics to break into consumer markets. |
| Private Call |
| Ezra Lang Carrasquillo, cezra@mit.edu |
| Private Call will market a telephone mouthpiece attachments that will prevent the caller from being overheard and the call recipient from hearing background noise from the source of the call. The potential market is anyone who makes telephone calls in noisy environments. |
| Rapid Vision |
| Timothy Chien, tchien@mit.edu |
| Rapid Vision focuses on the commercialization of patented technology to "read" poor-quality documents, including handwritten documents, with very high speed and accuracy. A parallel concept has been developed to enable paperless processing of major applications. Using these concepts, organizations can achieve dramatic reductions in transaction processing costs. |
| Rest In Peace |
| Dennis Lee, dslee@mit.edu |
| R.I.P. will be in the business of bridging professionals involved in the death care industry and potential customers in a virtual community. Specifically, R.I.P. will act as agents or brokers of information and services from the different industry suppliers in the death care industry to the public (our customers) who need affordable funeral care services. |
| RTDB Technologies |
| K. Vincent Lee, kvlee@mit.edu |
| Connected Care Corporation (formerly RxLink) |
| Damon Bramble, bramble@mit.edu |
| We are a company dedicated
to meeting the needs of today's health care environment. Our first
product, Rx-Link, is a medication scheduler and dispenser for elderly users
with chronic illnesses. Rx-Link will monitor and improve patient compliance. |
| ScenTec |
| Rudiger Schmidt, rudi@alum.mit.edu |
| Synchronizing aromas with movies introduces the third dimension of entertainment experience to the theatrical exhibition industry. ScenTec develops, markets and licenses proprietary technologies, methods and trademarks around aromas in the filmed entertainment sector. |
| CWolf (formerly SeaWolf) |
| Eric Wolf, ewolf@mit.edu |
| Branding and distribution of farm-raised seafood. |
| Shark Tail Technologies |
| Sumit Agarwal, sum@mit.edu |
| Shark Tail Technologies produces quieter, more-effective propellers for a variety of fishing and boating applications. |
| SiliconTest |
| Rohini Chakravarthy, crohini@mit.edu |
| We provide silicon micro-machined probes for automatic testing of semiconductor chips. This new technology is far cheaper and more versatile than the metal probes currently used for this application. |
| SongSearch Co. |
| Kenneth Martin, mkenneth@mit.edu |
| The SongSearch Company is engaged in the business of creating high-tech smart radio systems. |
| Systems Dynamics Consulting & Software |
| Martin Grossman, mugrossm@mit.edu |
| Systems Dynamics is a modeling techniques that allows simulation of complex systems. We have applied it to the decision making process faced in hi-tech startups. The simulation package will act as a management "flight simulator" and also be the basis of consulting. |
| Tangible Results |
| Laurits Christensen, claurits@mit.edu |
| Tangible Results will process medical data into three-dimensional physical models allowing physicians to decrease surgery time, reduce the possibility of human error, and reduce malpractice exposure. |
| Tensile Light Structure |
| Acharawan Chutarat, acha@mit.edu |
| Tensile Light Shelf provides innovative building solutions for improving the visual and thermal comfort of occupants in low rise office buildings and/or residential dwellings in southern regions of North America. Our products integrate into existing building envelope construction techniques, offering a low incremental cost of installation and rapid payback through significant gains in energy efficiency. |
| Tessier-Ashpool |
| Russell Miller, russell@mit.edu |
| Tessier-Ashpool seeks to design and patent a new soft drink gimmick, and then license it to Coca-Cola. |
| The International Intelligence Company |
| Christine Chan, cwychan@mit.edu |
| International Intelligence Company provides trade-related information as well as data on foreign countries and companies. |
| TRACKS |
| Felipe Payet, fpayet@mit.edu |
| Ski resorts today face an urgent need to attract skiers and snowboarders. By offering resorts the ability to monitor exactly who their customers are, and more importantly, the ability to contact each customer directly, TRACKS will give resorts the tools they need to succeed in the battle for market share. |
| TVpoint |
| Derek Chiou, derek@mit.edu |
| TVpoint is a smart TV remote control for television and other audio-visual systems. |
| V-Tech Communications |
| James Kao, jkao@mit.edu |
| Vicinage Corporation |
| Edward Hsu, edhsu@mit.edu |
| Vicinage develops solutions that involves the locating, tracking, and retreiving of individuals, objects, or animals. Our primary product is a tracking system which can aid law enforcement agents by monitoring the location of paroled law offenders. |
| VIRTMED (tm) |
| Stephen Hau, stevehau@virtmed.com |
| Virtual Medical Systems, Inc. or VIRTMED (tm) is a start-up company founded by students, grads, and faculty from the MIT Media Lab, Harvard University, and Harvard Medical School. VIRTMED (tm) develops automated neurological diagnostic technologies and a related Internet service that help drug manufacturers and HMOs reduce costs ands risks. |
| Nettiquin (formerly Virtual Mannequin) |
| Dingli Chen, dingli@mit.edu |
| Virtual Mannequin enhances the on-line apparel industry by allowing customers to fit clothes onto 3D models of themselves (using VRML) through the internet. |
| Virtual Server-Personal Pages |
| Ronald Demon, rdemon@mit.edu |
| Virtual Server will license software to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and offer an alternative web addressing service which allows users to assign personalized web addresses to their web pages. Our web posting software provides an easy to use interface for posting web pages from existing email accounts or conventional web servers. |
| Volunteer Community Connection |
| Michael Bryzek, maciej@mit.edu |
| The Volunteer Community Connection enables the easy and automated sign-up and management of volunteers with non-profit agencies. Our Internet Search Engine allows volunteers to find the right opportunity based on their interests and concerns. |
| Web Commerce Components |
| Ricardo Ambrose, ambrosia@mit.edu |
| Develop integratable modules that can be customized together to meet the commercial web services needs of small and medium-sized firms. The ability to modularize this product allows us to customize solutions for customers quickly and cheaply. |
| WeddingBell Enterprises |
| Peter Stein, pnstein@mit.edu |
| WeddingBell Enterprises will provide any retail establishment a comprehensive wedding gift registry. The product will be an Internet-based, full-service, gift registry system that will allow the end consumer to purchase gifts from an engaged couple's gift registry. |
| zinet |
| Steven Zagoren, zsteven@mit.edu |
| Zinet Corporation provides electronic funds transfer services for individuals, charities, and small and medium sized businesses. |