Record-Breaking Competitions Fuel Innovation
Business and innovation competition season saw record student participation in the 2023-24 academic year at Foster. The UW’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship pulled out all the stops for its three annual interdisciplinary competitions — the Dempsey Startup Competition, the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge (EIC), and the Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge (HIC) — across winter and spring quarters.
Extending the lifespan of transplant organs
A total of $41,000 in prizes went to student teams in the HIC on February 28. Students gathered, pitched, and created tradeshow booths showcasing their ideas to 100 judges representing the health, biotech, investor, and entrepreneurial communities across the Pacific Northwest.
Judges awarded the $15,000 WRF Capital Grand Prize to team BioLegacy for its patent-pending technology to preserve organs cryogenically and rewarm them electromagnetically. The multi-disciplinary team of Seattle University and University of Washington students are working to make the lifespan of transplant organs go from 24 hours of viability to potentially years.
In its ninth year, the 2024 HIC received a record-breaking 53 applications from seven colleges and universities across the Cascadia Corridor (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, and British Columbia).
Keeping plastic waste out of landfills
The $15,000 Grand Prize in the 2024 EIC went to a team of UW bioresource science and engineering students and a Technology Management MBA student.
Team AgroFilms developed an innovative, low-cost approach to creating mulch film that they believe will keep plastic waste from farms out of landfills while also contributing to the circular economy. In a priceless moment, the team was seen with their heads down just before the final prize was announced, believing they had won nothing. Moments later, they heard their name announced and reacted with shock, awe, and joy.
Judges awarded $42,000 in prizes in the 16th year of the EIC on March 28. The competition achieved an all-time high of 42 student applications from 10 colleges and universities. The 22 EIC finalists chosen by judges debuted their innovations at the competition in Seattle Center’s Exhibition Hall. They covered more than a dozen critical focus areas, including waste reduction, agriculture and food waste, ocean health, carbon tech, eco-friendly healthcare, and more.
Healthcare takes center stage at Dempsey
Competition season reached its peak at the 2024 Dempsey Startup, which, at 27 years since its inception, is the longest-running and largest college new venture competition in the Pacific Northwest. For the second year in a row, the Dempsey Startup topped its record for submissions. The 28th annual competition had 136 student teams from 21 different colleges and universities compete across multiple rounds beginning May 2 with the Investment Round (top 37), followed by the Sweet 16 (top 16) and Final Rounds (top 4) on May 23.
Team BioLegacy won the $25,000 Herbert B. Jones Foundation Grand Prize — becoming the first venture since A-Alpha Bio in 2018 to win the grand prize in both the Dempsey Startup and the HIC.
Judges awarded the $15,000 BECU Second Place Prize to MoodRoom for its virtual, accessible, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) toolkit for young adults that combines a focus on mental health with game design. The UW team aims to address a huge problem nationally by offering an app-based way for youth to manage mood and mental disorders, negative thought patterns, suicidal ideation, self-harm, and substance abuse.
The $10,000 WRF Capital Third Place Prize went to Joy Bucket. The UW spin-out of MBA and MS in Computer Science students created an affordable, clinical-grade wearable health technology for continuous maternal and fetal health monitoring.
Judges awarded a total of $87,500 in prizes, including eight distinct Big Picture and Best Idea prizes in categories ranging from social impact, sustainability, and global reach to innovative approaches to technology, business-to-business applications, and consumer products. Finally, the Buerk Center awarded the third annual UW Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year Award to Paul Mikesell (B.S., Computer Science, ’96), Founder and CEO of Carbon Robotics.
More than $5 million awarded to students
The Buerk Center also co-hosted the Science & Technology Showcase (STS) with the UW Science and Engineering Business Association (SEBA) in mid-January.
The 18th annual STS saw record participation. Eighteen finalist teams pitched the commercial potential of their science- and engineering-based innovations for valuable feedback and small cash prizes. Half of the finalist teams continued to work on their ideas and threw their hats into two highly competitive fields at the HIC and EIC.
Overall, the Buerk Center has awarded more than $5 million to students since 1998 through multiple competitions and the Jones + Foster Accelerator.
The 2024 competition season comes on the heels of the University of Washington earning a historic national ranking for entrepreneurship programs by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine. UW ranked in the top 10 for “Best Entrepreneurship Program” for both undergraduate and graduate programs for the first time, ever.
Learn more about Buerk Center entrepreneurship competitions.