Preliminary Round
On Jan. 24, the Institute’s eleventh annual InVenture Prize competition kicked off its preliminary round of evaluation in the Student Center Ballroom. Over forty teams of students presented judges with their product ideas, business plans, and prototypes. Additionally, each team was briefly interviewed by media representatives from the Georgia Public Broadcasting network (GPB), and students were able to obtain their first taste of this year’s competitive environment.
Teams were composed of students ranging from first-years to those who had graduated within the last year. Although such an age gap existed among some of the competitors, the quality of the students’ inventions and business endeavors showed no evidence of this. This year’s notable inventions included those of data collection websites, educational apps, medical devices, and even those made for daily use by the average consumer.
Each team was prepared with their respective “quick pitches” and explanations, and judges undoubtedly had difficulty in narrowing the contestant pool down to the twenty-seven teams to move on to the next round of the competition.
More about the preliminary round here.
Semi-Finals
On Tuesday, February 5, the semi-final round of the 2019 InVenture Prize Competition was held in the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute. Here the twenty-seven remaining teams of student innovators gathered and presented to a panel of judges their inventions and business concepts.
The event took place throughout the majority of the day, as teams were called to present during their allotted times. Upon entering, teams were granted three minutes to conduct their idea pitches, and then ten minutes of discussion were held for feedback from the judges. The judge panel was composed of experts in multiple fields of discipline and whose numbers varied from five to eight throughout the day.
As opposed to the more clamorous, round-robin-type environment of the preliminary round, teams were able to present their pitches in a more collected and private manner. Teams presented their ideas one at a time, and this allowed for a much more personal experience between the parties.
More Information about the Semi Finals here.
