MADISON—Eight teams of student entrepreneurs will compete virtually for cash prizes and recognition in the Wisconsin Big Idea Tournament, presented by WiSys, on May 20 from 4-5:30 p.m.
The tournament, sponsored by UW System and Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), brings together teams of university students from across the state to pitch innovative business ideas. The competition was established to extend the Wisconsin entrepreneurial ecosystem to University of Wisconsin students with the goal to improve the overall quality of business startup performance in the state.
The student pitches will take place virtually and will be livestreamed on Zoom and YouTube. For more information about the Wisconsin Big Idea Tournament, visit wisys.org/bigidea.
The teams that qualified for the tournament include:
- Adjustaslice, Chase Sarver (UW-Eau Claire)
- Advantage Point, Ross Younger (UW-Milwaukee)
- First Responder Monitoring, John Eccles (UW-Whitewater)
- LinguaMD, Gabrielle Richardson (UW-Parkside)
- Porta Plug, George Soucek, Jason Tamron (UW-Whitewater)
- Rice Time Food Truck, Jaden Radcliff (UW Oshkosh)
- Technology Literacy Training for Older Adults, Cheri Branham (UW-Green Bay)
- UV Bag, Elizabeth Kelly (UW-Stout)
The first place team will win a $2,500 prize; the second place team will receive $1,500; and the third place team will receive $500.
In the leadup to the event, participating teams received mentoring from business leaders including Georgia-Pacific’s Darin Driessen, Titletown Tech’s Aaron Kennedy, Kentucky Commercialization Ventures’ Monique Quarterman, the Small Business Development Center’s Colleen Merrill and Resourceability’s Kelly Berry.
Melissa “Missy” Hughes, secretary and CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, Wisconsin’s lead economic development organization, will be a featured guest speaker during the Wisconsin Big Idea Tournament.
Secretary Hughes will also serve as a judge for the competition along with Greg Keenan from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and Idella Yamben from the Center for Technology Commercialization.
The virtual event is part of the 2021 WiSys SPARK Symposium Virtual Series—which honors faculty, staff and student research, innovation and entrepreneurship in the UW System. For more information about the symposium’s events, visit wisys.org/spark.
WiSys is a nonprofit organization that works with faculty, staff, students, and alumni of the UW System to facilitate cutting-edge research programs, develop and commercialize discoveries and foster a spirit of innovative and entrepreneurial thinking across the state.