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MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition |
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dec. 10 -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- On Wednesday, December 10, the MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition honored ten innovative business plans in its first round "warm-up" event. The $1K is the first stage of MIT's annual business plan competition that culminates in the spring with $50,000 in cash prize to be awarded among three winning teams.
The 120 first round entries mark one of the $50K's largest student entry pools to date. The Competition once again includes a variety of emerging technologies and unique service concepts. This year's award recipients range from MicroPropulsion, a producer of miniature components for the portable consumer electronics industry, to WeddingBell Enterprises, a provider of wedding registry services via the Internet. The industry categories include biotech, media and software, computer hardware, services and consumer products.
At the $1K Awards Ceremony, the winning teams presented short reviews of their entries. The $1K Awards showcased the most recent entrepreneurial pursuits of the MIT community. Attendees at the event included successful Boston entrepreneurs in the MIT network, members of the $1K teams, judges, $50K supporters and organizers, MIT faculty and administration, and members of the press.
The MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition is the world leader among university-based busines plan competitions. The mission of the program is to produce tomorrow's leading firms. In its nine-year history, it has facilitated the birth of over 30 companies with an aggregate market value of over $70 million dollars today and over 500 jobs created. Past entrants of the $50K Competition include successful start-ups such as Firefly Network, Lexicus (acquired by Motorola), Sensable Technologies, Webline Communications, Stylus Innovation (acquired by Artisoft), and Silicon Spice.
For further information, please contact:
Dave Chan 617.227.9008 or e-mail <dkchan@mit.edu> or Joel Serface 617.285.5635 or e-mail <sjoel@mit.edu>
For additional information on the MIT $50K Competition, go to the web site at <http://web.mit.edu/50k/www>.
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 a couple's gift registry.
Peter Stein, Joshua Tolman, Rebecca Smith, David Wechsler
Scalable Caching and Replication Solutions for High Bandwidth Applications
Tom Leighton, Daniel Lewin, Preetish Nijhawan
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, octopus, and squid, abalone are marine shellfish whose meat is highly valued for its delicate flavor and firm texture.
Daniel Brooks
Mechatronics company
Pradeep K. Subrahmanyan, Upendra Ummethala, Kimberly J. Voss, Gregory A.Voss
MicroPropulsion Corporation produces miniature power components for the portable consumer electronics industry. As camcorders become smaller, personal digital assistants become pocket-sized, and laptops strive to be thinner and lighter, the motors and power converters remain the bulkiest components. MicroPropulsion produces miniature gearless motors and thinner, flatter power transformers.
Dr. Anita Flynn, Dr. Mary Tolikas, Marilee Andrew
THM designs and manufactures a full line of automotive diagnostic tools for novices and experts.
Diego Borrego
Partners in Progress, a nonprofit organization, builds relationships between corporate employees and community organizations by promoting and implementing: -informed, targeted philanthropy, and -uniquely effective corporate volunteer programs.
Julie Harford
Branding and distribution of farm-raised seafood.
Eric Wolf, Sam Cole
Expedition provides travelers with the best of city guides, event calendars & ticket services, restaurant reviews and reservations, concierge and messaging services in a user-friendly, digital package smaller than any guidebook. You can pick up or drop off the Pocket Concierge™ at the front desk of your hotel, at your airline's gate, or from your car rental counter.
Matthias Wagner, Panop "Tom" Kasemsarn
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.
Stephen Intille, Yuri Ivanov, Joe Ngai, Sarah Wilkinson