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Grand Prize: Radiosonde Recovery

Second Place: Innovative Protein Technologies

Third Place: Quicker Kicker

Bresslergroup Best Product Concept Award: Radiosonde Recovery, Quicker Kicker

QVC Consumer Innovation Prize: Ultra Slim Key Card Holder

Paramount Rapid Prototype Award: Ultra Slim Key Card Holder

Lowenstein Sandler PC Legal Mentoring Award: Radiosonde Recovery, Quicker Kicker, Fodius

Tierney Communications Strategy, Positioning & Branding Award: Fodius

Proprietary drug delivery platforms that offer novel approaches to treat thrombotic diseases. CircuMed was also selected as a semi-finalist in this year’s Wharton Business Plan Competition.
Armen Karamanian, M.D, Pharmacology PhD '08

Myocardial infarction is the number one killer in the US. Stroke is number three. Inspired by the exciting biomedical research being conducted at Penn, Circumed is developing a proprietary drug delivery platform that offers novel approaches to treat thrombosis (blood clotting) diseases. Armen Karamanian and Yun Fang found a patent portfolio at Penn’s Center of Technology Transfer and began development with teammates, Patricia Tsao, James O'Connell and William Shen. CircuMed is also a semi-finalist of the Wharton Business Plan Competition.

Beneficiary-notification services that alerts people to their entitled financial assets upon someone’s death.
Armen Karamanian, M.D, Pharmacology PhD '08

Twenty-three billion dollars in assets went unclaimed by legally entitled beneficiaries in the US in 2005. Armen Karamanian wanted to invent something that would keep his family in Argentina abreast of any assets he had accumulated, if anything were to happen to him. Fodius sends financial information to beneficiaries upon the death of an account owner so that the beneficiary's entitled assets are not lost. Fodius is also part of the Wharton Venture Initiation Program and the team spoke at the Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference in 2006.

A more efficient, less intrusive radiofrequency probe for clinical magnetic resonance imaging.
DJ Wallman SEAS'08

Early detection of diseases can reduce the potential for loss of life as well as health care costs. Walter Witschey, Daniel Wallman and Michael Wang, created imageTHIS, a device that allows Multiple Resonance scanners to "tune into" a greater number of nuclear resonance "frequencies" for earlier detection of maladies like cancer and Alzheimer's disease. The team received a grant from the Weiss Tech House Innovation Fund to conduct additional research. Wallman is currently the International Chair of Penn’s Engineers Without Borders and was recently invited to speak to the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) in Berlin.

Provides a fully automated solution for western blot protein analysis.
Pravien Abeywickrema SEAS M'08

Current methods for running a western blot protein analysis – a process used to identify specific proteins in a mixture for research purposes- can sometimes take an entire day. So, while working together in a lab, Pravien Abeywickrema and Noel Byrne decided it was worth their time to try and develop a faster approach.. Innovative Protein Technologies is developing a fully automated solution for western blot protein analysis, that performs sample loading from 96-well plates, electropohoresis for size based component separation, immunoblotting and detection.

Academic tool that trains future researchers in exploiting electronic notebook technology for recording research data in commercial labs.
Pinye Tan, SEAS'08

Using paper and pens to take notes during experiments is inefficient in contrast to technological potential available today. Pinye Tan and his team created LabAide as an academic tool designed to train future researchers in exploiting Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) technology for recording research data in commercial labs.

Pinye Tan and his teammates are all exchange students from the National University of Singapore (NUS), at Penn on a one year exchange program. Tan and teammate, Qiuchan Chua, are interning full time at startups in the Philadelphia region and taking entrepreneurship courses at Penn. Chua is currently interning at First Flavor, Inc., a Philadelphia based company founded by Weiss Tech House alum and inventor, Adnan Aziz SEAS/SAS'04. Upon completion of the prototype, the team will conduct alpha beta-testing.

Pressure sensing technology to quantify the dynamic force strength and positions in atheletes' movements.
Mosha He, SEAS PhD'10

Athletes and sports enthusiasts spend thousands of dollars and long hours trying to perfect their technique. The Movement Quantifier introduces a new concept of sports training to help athletes achieve their goals. The technology measures force of movement, positioning and other factors that are not detected by other training methods. Mosha He is the youngest student in her PhD class in Chemical and Biomechanical Engineering at age 21. Along with teammates Vipin Gupta and Vincent We, she successfully applied to the Innovation Fund of Weiss Tech House and is building a concept-demo prototype.

Nuclear prosthetic used to replace the damaged nucleus of an intervertebral disc.
An Nguyen, Wharton & SEAS'07

Intervertebral disc degeneration and associated lower back pain is a global health problem that afflicts millions of people and costs the economy nearly 100 billion dollars annually. An Nguyen developed the ideal approach for replacing the damaged nucleus of an intervertebral disc, while preserving the rest of the disc, using a nuclear prosthetic called Nexgel. Nguyen came up with the idea while working at the McKay Orthopaedic Laboratory. She is currently finishing her bioengineering and finance degrees at Penn and will begin her doctoral studies at Stanford this fall in mechanical engineering. She workied on a website called Livesphere (www.livesphere.com) to help students build teams for future innovation. Nguyen is now on her third startup that was recently launched, Chillaxn (www.chillaxn.com.)

Mechanical football holder for field goal kickers that replicates a holder catching the ball and placing it down in one smooth motion. Watch Video!
Derek Zoch W'08

During a football practice, the kicker's opportunity for game-speed and intense field goal repetitions may only last a few minutes. The rest of the time, they are off on their own utilizing a stationary football holder. Wharton junior, Derek Zoch, developed the Quicker Kicker to allow place kickers to practice kicking as they would in a real game. The Quicker Kicker simulates the actual task of the teammate who receives the snap and holds the ball, incorporating the important variables of timing and positioning which kickers are faced with in real game conditions. Zoch, has been playing football since the sixth grade and has been starting kicker for the Penn Quakers for the past three years. He is consulting with industry leaders and NFL coaches, and has brought on board Engineering junior, Steve Jones, to help build a prototype at the Weiss Tech House.

Autonomous GPS-based robot that recovers instruments sent to near-orbit altitudes. Watch Video!
Warren Jackson, SEAS BSE'08 MSE'08

Less than 20% of radiosonde devices sent up on weather balloons are recovered. To date there is not a sufficient and economical equipment recovery system for research groups such as the National Weather Service. Warren Jackson developed an idea for an autonomous GPS based robot that could retrieve objects sent to near-orbit altitudes, and in 2006, he received the Jacob M. Abel Summer Internship to work on it. He met serial inventor, Kevin Galloway, through their mutual advisor Professor Mark Yim, and brought on Chris Thorne and Bill Mather for their experience with robotic aerial vehicles. Radiosonde Recovery was recently awarded a Weiss Tech House Innovation Fund grant to develop their second prototype. The team plans to conduct testing in June.

A slim, professionally styled device that allows for one-handed access to essential cards and keys.
Alexander Furmansky, M&T '07

In a rush to get to a job interview, Ken Morgan W'08 decided he needed a more professional way of carrying his ID card and keys than just stuffing them in his pockets. Bolstered by feedback from a Product Design class in which the Darwinator idea ranking software was employed, Morgan brought on Vasudev Kulkarni, Atish Davda, and Alexander Furmansky to develop a commercial product.

Originally born in Ukraine, Alex Furmansky is a graduating senior in the Jerome Fisher Management and Technology. At Penn he balances his time between social and educational activities; dancing with the Ballroom Dancesport Team and competing in finance/entrepreneurial-centered competitions. The team has been selected to participate in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Product Design Fair in late April.