Undergraduate students with innovative ideas are set to converge, collaborate and create in a new competition offered by UF this semester.
Students can pitch any innovative idea in need of funding or a patent to a panel of judges to compete for cash prizes totaling up to $10,000.
Though this is the first time the competition will take place at UF, the InVenture Prize originated at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, said Carlo Candela, director of InVenture Prize at UF.
“They have done such a great job,” Candela said. “Our goal is to lean on what they have done so far.”
Mimicking the success of Georgia Tech’s competition is the main goal, but the addition of UF students’ Gator flair is what organizers hope will make this competition a popular annual event.
Sam Grace, assistant director of InVenture Prize at UF, said he wants to see UF grow in response to this competition.
“Georgia Tech is known for their engineering. They’re a technical school, and Florida isn’t,” Grace said. “We’re trying to show that we can compete with anyone.”
The deadline for online registration is Wednesday. The original deadline was Jan. 17, but Candela said the deadline was extended to allow for more teams to enter. The venue has yet to be chosen.
Twelve teams are registered to compete, but Candela said they are looking for about 20.
Ian Mitchell, the president of the UF Entrepreneurship Club, said these types of competitions prime the pump for innovation among UF students.
“It gets people out of their comfort zone,” Mitchell said.
Tim Garofalo, a 21-year-old UF finance senior, said he thinks the competition will bring students together in a way no class or lab could.
“The InVenture Prize sounds like a really neat competition that will foster great relationships between business majors and engineers,” Garofalo said. “I think a lot of my friends would like to see this become bigger.”
[A version of this story ran on page 3 on 2/4/2014 under the headline "Prize draws student entrepreneurs"]
