The top three New Venture Challenge champions, Stride Tech, Button Huggie and Tissue Form originated in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Teams started as 鈥楨ntrepreneurship for Social Innovation鈥� senior design projects, graduate design projects and as breakthrough research in mechanical engineering labs. Teams were mentored and supported by faculty in the department and听by Design Center Colorado.听
First Place: StrideTech
StrideTech,听a Hardware Track finalist, was awarded听$100,000 for a听digitally enhanced walker听that will help seniors correct user errors before they result in dangerous mishaps. The StrideTech team includes听Engineering Plus students Timothy Vesos-Ely, Max Watrous and Humsini Acharya听and mechanical engineering students Tom Saunders and Andrew Plum. The team was formed as part of the 鈥楨ngineering for Social Innovation鈥� section of mechanical engineering senior design.听
Second Place:听Button Huggie听
Button Huggie, an R&D Track finalist, was awarded $45,000 for a听precision-engineered medical device designed to simplify care for a child's听gastrostomy听button听and reduce gastrostomy-related complications. The team began as a mechanical engineering graduate design team during the 2017-2018 academic year. On the team were graduate students Tyler Mironuck, Ben Fried and Brian Heckman sponsored by Children's Hospital Colorado surgeon Dr. Steven Moulton. Today, Mironuck听and Moulton are carrying the invention听forward.听
Third Place: Tissue Form
TissueForm, an R&D Track finalist, was awarded $12,500 for a simple, low cost and long-lasting dermal filler technology that helps patients suffering from tissue disease, damage or aging. TissueForm originated from research that fourth-year PhD student Jeanne Barthold performed听in听Associate Professor Corey Neu's听Soft Tissue Bioengineering Lab in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. TissueForm also won the NVC Women's Entrepreneurship Prize听and participated in the University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Showcase in Washington, D.C.
Other Awards
CU Boulder mechanical engineering students also won the top听Women's Entrepreneurship Prizes and Social Impact Prizes. Women's Entrepreneurship Prize winners included TissueForm and听ShineOn, a venture making听the world safer by providing cyclists with a light that dramatically improves nighttime visibility. Social Impact Prize winners included BioCube, a venture听offering a novel up-cycling solution to address plastic pollution in oceans听and empower local communities to turn plastic waste into functional products and Flux, a venture designing a robust, compact thermoelectric power generation unit powered by cooking fires to address lack of access to electricity in the developing world.听
