With a high-tech safety gadget for walkers, undergrads hit the jackpot in CU's latest New Venture Challenge.
Timothy Visos-Ely had a lot to celebrate in May: Not only did he and high-school sweetheart Amy Eichman (IntPhys’19) both earn ˛ĘĂń±¦µä degrees, but Visos-Ely’s souped-up, midnight-gray Nissan Xterra was about ready for summer off-roading.
Also, he’d just won $100,000.
On April 3, before a live audience of about 350, Visos-Ely (EngrPlus’19) and four teammates, all fellow engineering undergraduates, placed first in the 11th annual New Venture Challenge, ˛ĘĂń±¦µä’s top competition for aspiring entrepreneurs.
“This means we get to have a decent shot at launching this company,” said the 22-year-old Kansas-bred CEO of , a budding medical device firm that emerged from the team’s senior design project.
In all, 230 students, faculty and affiliates participated in the latest NVC, which this year awarded a record $250,000-plus from a mix of donors, companies and investors.
The StrideTech team designed a digital accessory for walkers intended to improve user health and safety. The device, SmartStep, aims to minimize falls and correct lapses in posture by assessing gait patterns and relaying real-time information about force exerted on the walker.
“Very little weight should be applied to the walker,” said Visos-Ely, whose grandmother’s reliance on a walker inspired the project.
The first-place finish catapults StrideTech’s co-founders into postcollegiate life as bona fide entrepreneurs. This summer, Visos-Ely, Max Watrous (·ˇ˛Ô˛µ°ů±Ę±ôłÜ˛ő’19), Humsini Acharya (EngrPlus’19) and Andrew Plum (MechEngr’19) will work fulltime on their product and company as participants in Catalyze CU, a threemonth business accelerator program. [NVC teammate Tom Saunders (MechEngr’19) has other plans.]
If Visos-Ely gets a breather, he’ll recharge outdoors — hiking, mountain biking, tubing or off-roading in the Xterra. It’s equipped with a suspension he rebuilt himself. “I’ve always liked fixing things,” he said. “The reason why I work on my truck is to make it better. I find ways to improve it. That’s kind of what inventing is — looking at what’s out there and making it better.”
Learn more about the NVC at .
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