Young Entrepreneurs Win $3500 at Envision Entrepreneurship Pitch Competition

PRINCETON, N.J., Dec. 5, 2016 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- On December 2nd, 2016, five projects competed in the finalist round of Envision Entrepreneurship, a pitch competition centered on future technology hosted at Princeton University during the Envision Conference. The projects included cognitive implants based on nanotechnology, an oxygen-producing payload on NASA's 2020 Mars Rover, "smart" microbial fuel cells, an ant based farming system, and an add-on for satellites responsible for accelerating their orbit post-mission.

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"The presentations were all captivating and enlightening, and the presenters themselves were bright entrepreneurs and forward thinkers," commented Alden Richards, a judge at the competition and a lecturer at Yale and Brown universities in entrepreneurship and the space industry. "Envision Entrepreneurship was truly unique in promoting what they call 'deep entrepreneurship,' which includes factors like long-term impact and downside mitigation."

Taking home first place—and $2,000—was the Astromech Reel, an autonomous CubeSat add-on responsible for accelerating the deorbit of satellites post-mission, presented by students Julia Peng, Greg Howard, and Kaan Pinar from the University of Pennsylvania. Julian Vallyeason, a student at Brown University, was awarded $1,000 for his "smart microbial fuel cells" project, which earned second place. Rounding out the winners was MOXIE, a payload being developed for NASA's 2020 Mars Rover to produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, which was presented by Eric Hinterman, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who won $500.

"For us, Envision Entrepreneurship has been incredibly valuable in spurring the genesis and development of the Astromech Reel," said Howard, of the team behind the project. "The competition represented much more than a source of seed money. In fact, the mentors Envision Entrepreneurship matched us with actually helped us completely overhaul and even rebrand our idea."

The other judges of Envision Entrepreneurship were Julia Bossmann, president of the Foresight Institute; Shahram Hejazi, a professor at Princeton University and life sciences entrepreneur; and Luke Nosek, a co-founder of Paypal and co-founder and partner of FoundersFund.

"Many aspects of Envision Entrepreneurship made it so much more than a typical pitch competition: the mentorship offered, the diverse and brilliant applicant pool, and of course the judges, who brought decades of experience across a variety of fields," said Adam Chang, co-organizer of Envision Entrepreneurship.

"I think what made it most special was its divergence from requirements like having to involve a large user base or being able to make revolutionary profit," added Vallyeason, behind the second place "Smart Microbial Fuel Cells" project. "They made it clear that the best ideas would simply be applications of future technologies that solve real-world problems. In other words, ideas that innovate for humanity using technology."

ABOUT THE ENVISION CONFERENCE

The Envision conference is an annual three-day conference centered on applications of future technology involving panels, expos, and workshops. Speakers in 2016 included Luke Nosek, co-founder of Paypal and FoundersFund; Anders Sandberg, fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University; and Gregory Stock, director of the UCLA Program on Medicine, Technology, and Society.

The 2016 conference was attended by 160 undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals selected from a pool of over 500 applicants. Participants represented 39 different universities and eight countries, including India, Poland, and the Netherlands. Advisors to the conference included Sam Altman, president of Y Combinator; Peter Bruce-Clark, founder of Permutation Ventures; and Shirley Tilghman, a board member of Google and previous president of Princeton University. Additional details can be found at http://envision-conference.com.

ABOUT ENVISION

Envision is a student-run, not-for-profit organization affiliated with Princeton University. Envision inspires students to pioneer a brighter future through the prudent advancement of rapidly developing disruptive technologies. Opportunities offered by the organization include the Envision conference, talks by renowned guest speakers, discussions, and trips to conferences and companies centered on future technology and society-scale impact. For more information, visit http://www.envisionfuture.org.

Media Contact:Adam Chang, Envision/Princeton University, 973-937-8555, adam.chang@princeton.edu

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SOURCE Envision