Students
CONTACT:
Keri P. Mattox, 215-791-0105
kpm@threezerocommunications.com
Jordan Reese, 215-573-6604
jreese@pobox.upenn.edu
Sponsors Offer Prizes and In-Kind Services for Student Invention Competition
PHILADELPHIA, March 2008 - The Weiss Tech House, a student-run hub of technological innovation at the University of Pennsylvania, announced today its sponsors for PennVention 2008, the Weiss Tech House’s annual student invention competition. Returning this year as event sponsors are QVC, Inc., Bresslergroup, Lowenstein Sandler PC, Paramount PDS and Tierney Communications. New sponsor Meltwater Group is also joining the event this year. Collectively, the sponsors are offering nearly $60,000 in cash prizes and in-kind services in support of students who are creating, developing and commercializing innovative technologies. In addition to the core student invention competition, PennVention 2008 also will include an inventor’s fair and student-founded company presentations that will be held in the Wu and Chen Auditorium at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering on April 11, 2008.
"The amazing support, hands-on interaction and impressive expertise provided by our corporate sponsors has helped build PennVention into the successful annual event it is today," said Weiss Tech House Director Anne Stamer. "Our sponsors valuable guidance and work with Penn’s student inventors has helped past PennVention winners launch innovative products to market and we look forward to an impressive 2008 event."
PennVention sponsors have offered educational workshops, monetary donations and/or in-kind services tailored to their specific industry expertise. Sponsor-provided PennVention prizes include:
- Meltwater Social Innovation Award: Meltwater Group, a Norwegian IT company, will award PennVention's newest prize of $2,500 to the innovation with the greatest social impact.
- QVC Consumer Innovation Award: QVC, Inc., a PennVention Bronze Sponsor, will award its $2,500 prize to the innovation with the most commercial potential. Award includes a consultation with a QVC buyer.
- Bresslergroup Best Product Concept Award: Bresslergroup, a product development firm and PennVention Silver Sponsor, will provide $2,500 worth of professional services to be used at the winner’s discretion towards research, concept development or CAD modeling in the development of their product for production.
- Paramount Rapid Prototype Award: Paramount PDS, a Rapid Prototyping and manufacturing consulting group and PennVention Bronze Sponsor, will award $1,000 worth of Selective Laser Sintering Rapid Prototyping services to the design that is most commercially promising and best lends itself to Rapid Prototyping.
- Lowenstein Sandler PC Legal Mentor Award: The law firm of Lowenstein Sandler PC, a PennVention Bronze Sponsor, will provide five hours of legal counsel to selected PennVention winners and assist in their strategic plans for business development.
- Tierney Communications Strategy, Positioning & Branding Prize: Tierney Communications will provide one full-day session worth $7,500 with senior executives to determine branding, positioning and communication strategies.
- Bresslergroup will also provide one-on-one product development mentoring for the ten student teams presenting at the 4th Annual Invention Fair in April.
- Cisco Systems also joins as a new PennVention Bronze Sponsor.
Last year's PennVention winner Warren Jackson was awarded cash and in-kind services awards from Bresslergroup and Lowenstein Sandler PC to secure intellectual protection and continue with prototype testing for Radiosonde Recovery, an autonomous, GPS-based robot that retrieves weather equipment at near orbital levels. Past winners, such as Samuel Reeves, founder of Humanistic Robotics, Inc., also used these services to obtain patents and navigate the incorporation process for his robot that clears land mines at a fraction of the cost of previous machines. Paramount Industries helped Intellistem Orthopaedic Innovations create the first prototype of their proprietary prosthetic implant. QVC helped Allison Floam, inventor of the SunSak, a convertible beach towel, and Kunal Bahl, inventor of Dropps, environmentally safe laundry detergent capsules, to debut their products to a national audience on the QVC network.
ABOUT THE WEISS TECH HOUSE:
The Weiss Tech House is a student-run hub of technological innovation at the University of Pennsylvania that encourages and supports students in the creation, development and commercialization of innovative technologies. Students with a range of technological interest and skill can learn about technology, collaborate with peers, and take advantage of our in-house Innovation Fund, PennVention inventors’ competition, educational workshops, speaker series, and business mentoring programs. For more information, visit www.tech-house.upenn.edu.