The purpose of “Invent Your Future!” is to promote innovation and entrepreneurship by showcasing inventions from all fields and providing startup capital to drive the venture to the next stage of development. “The contestants and their presentations were outstanding once again”, said Dr. Patrick Kinlen of Crosslink. “I’ve served as a judge for Invent Your Future for several years now, and I can attest that this year’s competitors were among the best to date.” Winners of the 2011 “Invent Your Future!” competition are:
$6,000 1st Place: Olivia McNair, Adam Richardson, Davis Brent
Company: Thio-lene Works
Thiolene-Works seeks to produce thiol-ene foam padding systems for helmets (football, baseball, combat, etc.) which will drastically reduce the prevalence of traumatic brain injury.
Olivia McNair of Chicago, IL, is a third year Ph.D. candidate in polymer science with emphasis in sports and high performing materials. The team includes Adam Richardson, a Ph.D. candidate in Chemistry and Davis Brent, an accomplished sophomore in USM's Polymer Science program. Together they are studying a class of materials known as thiol-ene networks, under the guidance of our research advisor, Dr. Daniel Savin.
Pictured: Davis Brent, Olivia McNair, Adam Richardson,
and Nathan Kalyanaraman (Judge)
$5,000 2nd Place: Laurie Benvenutti and Justin Clark
Company: V-Trak Technologies, Inc.
Invention: V-Trak Technologies’ Tire Replacement and Automobile Maintenance Prediction Observance (TRAM-PRO) product is an advanced tire safety and brake monitoring system.
Laurie Benvenutti of Bay St. Louis, MS, is an MBA candidate at USM who will graduate in August. She also received a BS in Business Administration and a BA in Spanish from USM. Justin Clark of Hattiesburg, MS, is a BS candidate in Business Administration at USM. They worked under the direction of Dr. SherRhonda Gibbs, a Management professor at USM.
Pictured: Dr. Les Goff, Laurie Benvenutti, Justin Clark, and SherRhonda Gibbs
$4,000 3rd Place: Rasanna Rangarajan
Invention: Structured Light Image Capture (SLIC)
This invention represents a technical breakthrough in perspective imaging that affords cameras the unique ability to capture unprecedented amount of spatial detail and 3D topographic information.
Prasanna Rangarajan is a PhD candidate with the Photonics Architecture Lab at Southern Methodist University. His primary areas of expertise include computer vision and image processing. He also collaborates with Japanese researchers at Okayama University, on the subject of parameter-estimation for pattern recognition. He currently serves as the Chief Technical Officer of SLIC Technologies Inc., a startup company dedicated to commercializing key innovations from his PhD dissertation.
Pictured: Indranil Sinharoy, Prassana Rangarajan,
Kelli Booth, and Christian Corral
Sponsors for the 2011 "Invent Your Future!" Competition were:
• Crosslink
• The Area Development Partnership
• Mississippi Power
• Mississippi Technology Alliance
About “Invent Your Future!”: “Invent Your Future!” is an annual invention competition which began in 2005. The technology-oriented competition is designed to identify innovative ideas in Mississippi and the surrounding region, and to foster their commercial potential. Over $100,000 in winnings have been distributed since “Invent Your Future!” began.
“Invent Your Future!” serves as a launching point for many inventors and led to the formation of several new companies. In total, three companies have been formed, employing a total of five people in Hattiesburg. These companies have also secured research grants and seed capital totaling over $1 Million . Winners from the past four Invent Your Future contests have enjoyed further success in other competitions such as the Memphis Fed Ex Business Plan Competition and the Mississippi Technology Alliance Business Plan Competition, and the Collegiate Inventors Competition.
About Noetic Technologies:
Noetic Technologies, Inc. began as an initiative of The University of Southern Mississippi and is geared toward marketing and commercialization of the university’s technology. Since 2004, Noetic has played a vital role in bringing ideas to the marketplace for several high tech startup companies. Noetic’s management team comprises over fifty years of combined experience in market research, product development, process management, and marketing strategies.
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