The Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute announced the top 10 teams today in the 2018-19 Opportunity Quest at the University of Utah. The teams are competing for $10,000 in prizes, including a $5,000 grand prize, in the business-model, executive-summary competition.
The competition at the U is one of 11 Opportunity Quest competitions at colleges across the state. All the competitions are sponsored by Zions Bank.
The top 10 teams at the U are composed of students from across campus and proposed a wide variety of products. They range from devices to improve sleep to an app to help people rent each other’s outdoor equipment. Find a complete listing of teams and descriptions below.
Winning teams at the Opportunity Quest competitions around the state are also competing to be prequalified as a finalist team in the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge in early 2019. That competition offers $100,000 in cash and prizes, including a $40,000 grand prize. The teams that win the Opportunity Quest competitions are guaranteed a place among the finalist teams for this competition. All college students in Utah are welcome to participate in the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge. The application is open now through Feb. 14, 2019.
Learn more about the U’s Opportunity Quest here: lassonde.utah.edu/oq.
Top 10 Teams
Here are the top 10 teams in the 2018-19 Opportunity Quest at the University of Utah (alphabetical order):
Beacon Sleep Solutions
Beacon Sleep Solutions has developed a proprietary device, The Sleep Shield, designed to be the only device that could directly treat the 22.6 million people in the United States who suffer from sleep paralysis, as well as help the additional 38.8 million people in the U.S. with related sleeping disorders. This device, worn on the wrist (or similar place on the body), provides an increasingly strong vibration to wake those who suffer from these disorders.
Cool Kid Car Seat
Cool Kid Car Seat is a car seat to solve to the poor thermal properties of current car seats. The seat will use the car’s existing AC/heating system to both provide and pump the warm/cold air throughout the seat’s surfaces. The temperature will be controlled through Bluetooth communication on a smartphone or tablet granting the parent temperature monitoring and regulation of the seat.
Deco-UV
Deco-UV is a portable one-stop device for decolonization of antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). Innovating on recent peer-reviewed literature, Deco-UV aims to leverage cutting-edge UV technology research to create a portable, easy-to-use decolonization device that can be swiftly employed to decrease bacteria colonization in vulnerable populations, reduce the number of hospital-acquired infections and improve patient outcomes.
InSufflex
Insufflex is engaged in surgical equipment innovation, specifically an insufflation device that can be deployed at the global market in austere conditions. Their mission is to supply customers with the ability to rapidly deploy an insufflation device that uses ambient air and is portable, on the global scale to improve the surgical outcomes of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people.
NipaYe
NipaYe is a student startup company with a provisional patent on a pioneering breastfeeding product, Akoma. Akoma promotes natural milk production, leading to a more positive nursing experience for both mother and baby while decreasing the likelihood of health risks in mother and baby.
PreOv
PreOv, LLC (PreOv) is a medical technology company focused on supporting women and couples in family planning. It is a wireless, low-energy sensing intravaginal ring that measures changes in cervical mucus. Data received from the sensors through the ring’s Bluetooth technology can be conveniently viewed on PreOv smartphone app.
Project Embrace
Project Embrace is a global health nonprofit founded to facilitate global good by increasing access to healthcare for all, by reducing global health disparities while promoting sustainable healthcare practices. Project Embrace collects previously owned medical devices from patients who no longer need them and gives them to patients who need them around the world.
red_
red_ is on a mission to make fast, affordable internet connectivity widely available in Latin America. Founded in July 2018, red_ fosters networks by establishing relationships with communities and teaching people to deploy and manage simple networks. red_’s efforts are focused on underserved areas of Latin America, with the aim of ensuring that the red_ networks are community-run and self-sustaining.
Rexchanger
Rexchanger seeks to make outdoor recreation more affordable, more convenient and more streamlined to bring luxuries traditionally associated with individuals of higher income brackets to everyone. Rexchanger consists of an app and website where owners can put their equipment up for rent and users can rent that equipment for hours, days or weeks at a time.
The Plastic Lab
The Plastic Lab is a company dedicated to revolutionizing the way we look at recycling. The Plastic Lab offers a service that allows you to bring your waste, transform that waste into useful material and then build a useful product from your waste, all within a visit.
