Launch Academy earns top prizes at InventOR
The entrepreneurs from Launch Academy, the incubator program run through OSU's InnovationX brought home top honors and prize money at the .
InnovationX startups took first and second place and a joint OSU/Willamette University venture earned the People’s Choice Award by the conclusion of the June 22 event.
The InventOR is a statewide competition that brings together student startups from all of ºÚÁÏÍø¹ÙÍø’s universities including Portland State University, University of ºÚÁÏÍø¹ÙÍø, Southern ºÚÁÏÍø¹ÙÍø University, George Fox, University of Portland, Willamette University, and a large number of community colleges to present their business ventures to a panel of judges and compete for funding. More than 20 teams were in the final competition, and OSU came out strong and pitched well.
Our first-place team is SlapWeights, an advanced Launch Academy team who has designed an innovative add-on weight system for gym dumbbells and physical therapy devices. SlapWeights, represented by Sean Bullock, Daniel Bordenave and Caitlin Vandenberg-Rolls, won the $10,000 grand prizes – resources that they will use to explore manufacturing options – and were .
Our second-place team is Wheelchair Mate, formed by Nathan Matthews and Terry Nahm-Kalyn, who has designed a platform for wheelchair accessories – an open-source rail that can be used to mount any attachment to any wheelchair. They won $5,000.
The People’s Choice award was won by Learn to Play, an OSU/Willamette team represented by Riley Schweizer and Rebekah Bong, who are designing playground toys to introduce elementary-school-aged children to STEM concepts. They won $2,500.
Congratulations to our teams!
Related Blogs
