Michigan Business Challenge - 2011 MBC Winners

Overview | Format | Awards | 2011 Winners | 2012 Intercollegiate Competitions

On December 3, 2010, 48 teams from across the University competed in Round One of the 2011 Michigan Business Challenge. Eighteen teams advanced to Round Two, held on January 21, 2011. From that group, eight teams advanced to the Michigan Business Challenge Semi-Finals competition, held at Ross on February 18, 2011. Four teams moved on to the Finals, held that afternoon. Congratulations to all teams who entered and competed! The 28th Michigan Business Challenge awarded over $50,000 to the following teams:

$20,000 Pryor-Hale Award for Best Business  
$5,000 Williamson Award for Outstanding Business and Engineering Team  
$2,000 Outstanding Presentation:
MEMStim - MEMStim is an original design manufacturer selling MEMS electrode leads to medical device companies for integration into their targeted nerve stimulation devices. Medical device manufacturers will adopt our patented technology, because it eliminates costly manual assembly processes and enables a wider adoption of neurostimulation treatments.  We are a business-to-business operation selling medical device components on commercial purchase terms. Our firm’s value chain consists of product development, marketing, and sales. Angelique Johnson (PhD ‘11), Chris Cadotte (MBA ‘12) and Andrew Smith (MBA ‘12)

$10,000 Runner-Up
$7,500 Erb Award for Sustainability:
ReGenerate - ReGenerate designs, markets and leases on-site anaerobic digesters to food service operators such as university cafeterias and supermarkets. Our affordable digester, named the Compact Organic Waste System (COWS), transforms unwanted and costly organic waste into a renewable source of energy and nutrient-rich compost. ReGenerate offers its customers cost savings by eliminating waste handling fees and reducing the amount of natural gas they purchase to produce hot water.  Our company derives revenues from the leasing of COWS units and sales of branded compost products.  Robert Levine (PhD ’13), Paul Davis (MBA/MS ’11), Nolan Orfield (PhD ’13) and Hunt Briggs (MBA/MS ’11)

$2,500 Undergraduate Award:
SanoBio Therapeutics – SanoBio Therapeutics is commercializing a novel peptide molecule for the treatment of diabetic ulcers. A single application of our topical solution resulted in a 5x faster wound closure time with genetic obese diabetic mice. More importantly, the diabetic mice healed just as fast as the normal mice, eliminating the impairment of wound healing caused by diabetes. Our immediate goal is to conduct further preclinical trials before filing an Investigative New Drug (IND) application with the FDA. Zubair Ahsan (BBA/BSE ’11), Boyang Zhao (BSE ’11), James Li (BSE ’11)

$2,000 Best Written Plan:
SurveyBroker – SurveyBroker is a website that will match businesses and consultancies with the public opinion survey fieldwork companies that can best meet their market research needs. The website will allow market researchers to post project descriptions and collect bids from fieldwork companies that offer the precise capabilities they are looking for. The website will generate revenue by charging a small brokerage on any new project agreement reached through the site.  Nick Danoff (MBA ’12) and Chandra Aryasomayajula (MBA ’11)

$2,000 Outstanding Presentation:
Reveal Design Automation – A single modern chip costs $100M and takes 18 months to develop. Half of that time is spent identifying and eliminating design bugs. Existing software tools for chip design verification can’t scale with the complexity of modern designs. Reveal’s tool can. We have breakthrough technology based on U-M research that solves the verification scalability challenge, enabling chip design firms to eliminate more bugs in more complex designs with less time and with fewer people. Vimal Bhalodia (MBA ’11), Matthew Neagle (MBA ’11) and Zaher Andraus

$1,000 Advancing to Finals:
Brio Device – Brio Device is a medical device design company whose mission is to make complex medical procedures simple. The flagship product is the SmartAirway, which is designed to improve the success of emergency intubations. Brio also has initial designs for follow-on devices that create a complete product line for the emergency airway market. Brio Device is a spin-out of the University of Michigan’s Medical Innovation Center. Douglas Mullen, Hannah Hensel, Sabina Siddiqui, and Laura Walz (MIC Fellows ’11)