By Letty Fernandez

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – The inaugural Big Idea Competition hosted by the UTRGV Center for Innovation and Commercialization (CIC) brought together students, faculty, alumni, and community members to pitch innovative startup ideas to a panel of judges.

Held Wednesday, March 10, the virtual competition marked the center’s first event since being named a Blackstone Launchpad in January 2021.

Nine finalists deemed to have the best potential to commercialize competed for $7,000 in total prize money. Awards went to the teams with the top overall ideas and to special category team winners. More than 100 people in the virtual audience watched the competition.

“The participants did a phenomenal job. The ideas were well thought out,” said Laurie Simmons. director of the CIC.  “No matter what ultimately happens with the ideas, we hope the experience and knowledge gained through the competition will be of benefit to them long after the event.”

THE WINNING TEAM

Dr. Isaac Choutapalli, professor in the UTRGV Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. Xiaoqian “Naomi” Fang, assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Science, UTRGV School of Medicine, took first place for their project, “PowerGen Pitcher.”

“We are very excited to have won the Big Idea Competition, as well as the Green Innovation subcategory,” Choutapalli said. “We are planning to use the prize money to bring this product into the market in the next few months.”

The product, the PowerGen Pitcher, is a high-efficiency, pulsed-flow cooled thermoelectric generator that can provide electricity to charge electronic devices and power LED lights and fans day or night, rain or shine, when other modes of power are inaccessible.

“We are also very grateful to the UTRGV Center for Innovation and Commercialization for giving us this opportunity to pitch our idea,” Fang said. “We want to build on this momentum and launch our company soon.”

ADDITIONAL AWARDS

Placing second in the Big Idea Competition was Shelby Bessette, manager of the UTRGV Coastal Studies Lab and a UTRGV alumna, for her project, the South Coast Oyster Company. 

In third place was Evan Garcia for his project, called “Odigus,” which was also voted the audience favorite. Odigus is an online platform where guides can share their outdoor activities and adventurists can find experiences that meet their needs.

“With Odigus, we’re looking to be the solution for people who want to get outside and find meaningful outdoor experiences in the world,” said Garcia, a graduate student in disaster studies and program manager for the UTRGV School of Medicine’s Department of Family and Community Medicine. “The competition was an excellent experience and I felt a great sense of accomplishment. It demonstrated to the Odigus team that there is interest for our idea.” 

The Social Entrepreneurship Award went to Jorge Trujillo and Katie Lavallee of Weaving Food Webs Community. Trujillo is a lecturer in the UTRGV Department of Biology and Lavallee is a research assistant in the School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences.

In all, 46 teams from throughout the region applied for the March 10 competition. Those 46 were composed of 38 UTRGV student teams, three faculty teams, one UTRGV staff employee team, one UTRGV alumni team, and three Valley community member teams.

Eighteen reviewers evaluated the submissions and narrowed the competition pool to 10.

Simmons said The Big Idea Competition was a good way to encourage and support new ideas from the region. 

“Through our center and our competitions, we hope to help the next generation of entrepreneurs turn great ideas into great businesses and grow the economy of our region,” she said. 

Watch the Big Idea Presentations:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqM1H_U_Euzpnr9BEiBhr0BLX35CMw6Mu 

EVENT CONTACT 

Laurie.Simmons@UTRGV.edu 

Director, Center for Innovation and Commercialization / 956-665-3908