Three engineering student teams took the top spots in the 2017 Raymond Ideas Challenge competition hosted by the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship at the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University.
The Raymond Ideas Challenge is an annual competition that challenges students to explain their “big idea” for a product or service through both a written and video submission. Finalists then pitch their ideas to an expert panel of judges; the top 40 competed in the live pitch night on May 3.
“We are incredibly proud of our engineering students and the creativity they have shown in these ideas,” said Rodney Boehm, director of the Engineering Entrepreneurship Program and professor of practice. “Taking these to the next step into actual products is what engineering entrepreneurship is all about.”
First place and a $3,000 prize went to The OxiScope, a senior capstone design project from the engineering technology and distribution department. Team members include David Delamater, Matt Kellogg, Adam McGaffin, Gustavo Ordonex and Nathan Wiatrek. The OxiScope is a non-invasive prototype to measure the oxygen saturation and pulse rate of an infant during labor to assist doctors in determining whether or not an emergency cesarean section is needed.
Philip Bowie (electrical engineering), Cole Fincher and Michael New (mechanical engineering), Wesley Kuehn (manufacturing and mechanical engineering), Isaac Pitblado (general engineering) and Jana Soares (Mays Master of Business Administration student) took second place and $2,000 for TOBOR. Their innovation is using 3-D printing to create high-value products using their proprietary filament with greater heat and strength tolerance. The team had previously competed at Aggies Invent and at Texas A&M Invents at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, where they took second place.
Hexamania, an arithmetic-based puzzle game geared toward practicing math for elementary-age students, took third place and $1,000. Team members include Ryan Alderink and Jack Clark (computer science and engineering), Grace Fan (general engineering), Alejandra Hernandez and Pulkit Jain (industrial and systems engineering), and Kendel Lipe (biomedical engineering). The team had previously competed in Aggies Invent: STEM Education.