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2016 Semifinalists & Past Winners

Business Products & Services

IFM Technologies (1st place in BtoB track)
IFM Technologies develops lightweight flying robots for fully automated inspection tasks, starting on construction sites and in warehouses.
Marc Gyongyosi, McCormick ’17; Justin Saeheng, Kellogg ’16

CityKey Travel (2nd place in BtoB track)
CityKey gives its hotel partners the tools to build custom-branded interactive city guides that leverage content curated by professional travel writers.
Jordan Hollander, Kellogg ’16

Consumer Products & Services

Eighty Nine Robotics (1st place in BtoC track)
Eighty Nine Robotics makes Rook, a low-cost, indoor WiFI drone.
Jackie Wu, McCormick ’15; Spencer Williams, McCormick ’16

Wise Apple (2nd place in BtoC track)
Wise Apple delivers customized, healthy lunches to your door
Nate Cooper, Kellogg ’17; Rebecca Sholiton, Kellogg ’16

Energy & Sustainability

Lilac Solutions (1st place in Energy & Sustainability track)
Lilac Solutions is engineering new ion exchange materials invented at Northwestern to transform lithium extraction from brine resources.
David Snydacker, McCormick ’16; Alex Grant, McCormick ’20

LiOnSafe (2nd place in Energy & Sustainability track)
By utilizing cutting edge technology developed at Northwestern, LiOnSafe aims to improve lithium ion battery safety and performance by actively managing thermal runaway with a revolutionary “smart” separator.
José Martinez, Weinberg ’18; Leo Lucisano, Kellogg/Pritzker ’17; Mario Samos, Kellogg/Pritzker ’17; Jeff Wyson, Pritzker ’16

Life Sciences & Medical Innovations

Surgical Innovation Associates (1st place in Medical track)
Surgical Innovation Associates is an early stage medical and surgical device company focused on soft tissue repair
Alexei Mlodinow, Feinberg & Kellogg ’17; Todd Cruikshank, Kellogg ’17; Sega Moges, Kellogg ’16

Oxy-genie (2nd place in Medical track)
Oxy-genie is an automated oxygen weaning device designed to reduce lengths of stay for hospital inpatients admitted for heart failure and pneumonia.
Sam Drake, Kellogg ’16; Yash Kaushik, McCormick ’17; Francis Lovecchio, Feinberg ’16; Trevor Martin, Pritzker ’17; Ellie Pearlman, McCormick ’17; Lily Saadat, Feinberg ’15

Social Impact

The Graide Network (1st place in Social Impact track)
The Graide Network is connecting middle and high school teachers with qualified teaching assistants to grade and provide feedback on student work
Blair Pircon, Kellogg ’16 and Amanda McCarthy, Kellogg ’16

shareEd (2nd place in Social Impact track)
sharEd is improving the huge disparity in early childhood education in developing countries by making high-quality educational curricula and resources accessible through an innovative subscription-sharing model.
Bobby Powers, Kellogg ’16; Clara Clymer, Weinberg ’16; Kate Geremia, Kellogg ’16; Nihar Shah, Kellogg ’16; Derrick Wolbert, Kellogg ’16 

Undergraduate Finalist 

Audiovert Technologies (1st place for Undergraduate teams)
Audiovert is evolving the way people experience music by fusing audio products and personalization.
Ahren Alexander, McCormick ’16; Jamie Chen, McCormick ’16; Justin Fleischmann, Weinberg ’18; Agam Gupta, McCormick ’18; Alex Wilke, McCormick ’17