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2021 Transcend UW Competition Program
WELCOME Welcome to the 6th annual Transcend Madison Innovation Competition powered by Qualcomm. Transcend UW works to connect students to resources that help them grow as entrepreneurs. Our mission is to support student ideas, no matter the industry. From healthcare to finance to web applications and beyond, our students are putting their ideas into action across the board and contributing to the world of tomorrow.
The Transcend UW team is pleased to showcase some of the
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University of Wisconsin-Madison s finest student talent in entrepreneurship and innovation. Through the competition, we hope to give students a head-start on turning their ideas into concrete business plans. This year, we are proud to give away over $60,000 in prizes!
On behalf of Transcend UW, thank you for coming, and enjoy the 2021 Transcend Madison Innovation Competition. We hope to see you next year!
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CONTENTS Transcend Madison Innovation Competition 2021
Sponsors
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Agenda
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Awards
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Judges
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Competitors Main Stage
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Early Stage
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Team
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SPONSORS Transcend Madison Innovation Competition 2021
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AGENDA Transcend Madison Innovation Competition 2021
Tuesday April 20th Poster Session via SpatialChat
5:00 PM
Wednesday April 21st Early Stage Group Pitches AM Main Stage Group Pitches AM
9:00 AM 9:00 AM
Break Early Stage Group Pitches PM Main Stage Group Pitches PM Early Stage Judges Deliberation
1:00 PM 2:00 PM 4:00 PM
Thursday April 22nd Main Stage Call-back Round Group Pitches Main Stage Judges Deliberation Competition Awards Ceremony
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10:30 AM 3:00 PM 4:00 PM
AWARDS Transcend Madison Innovation Competition 2021
Main Stage Prizes 1st Place + StartingBlock Space 2nd Place + StartingBlock Space 3rd Place + StartingBlock Space Best Poster Best Prototype Best Pitch Best Executive Summary
$15,000 $10,000 $8,000 $3,000 $3,000 $3,000 $3,000
Early Stage Prizes 1st Place Best Poster Best Prototype Best Pitch Best Executive Summary
$3,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000
Additional Prizes and Services Services Social Entrepreneurship Alumni
$4,500 $1,000 $1,000
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MAIN STAGE JUDGES Samir Gupta Samir Gupta is currently the Vice President of Engineering at Qualcomm where he focuses on CDMA Technologies and Advanced Technology R&D. He brings over 25 years of experience in the global semiconductor industry, including insights in to the designing, manufacturing, and marketing of digital wireless communications equipment and services. Samir holds a BS in Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences from UW-Madison (1994) and an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of California-San Diego (1999)
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MAIN STAGE JUDGES Ed Javier Ed Javier is currently the Director of Entrepreneurship Programs for WEDC. Before this role, he had been working in the startup space for more than 15 years. He is an experienced executive that helped build and scale start-up companies such as Cars.com and HomeFinder.com. In 2015, as the General Manager he pivoted and sold the leading real estate website in the Philippines to Rocket Internet. Ed received a master’s degree in International Marketing from Depaul UniversityKellstadt in Chicago and his BA in Economics from University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
Chelsea Linder Chelsea is gener8tor’s Director of Operations. She began her tenure at gener8tor in 2018 as the gBETA Indy Director and ran gBETA Indy’s first three cohorts. She was then promoted to gBETA MD where she focused on operationalizing the gBETA product. She joined the gener8tor team after managing the corporate innovation and incubation center at a private equity firm in Indianapolis. She has a passion for Design Thinking and customercentered value creation. Chelsea graduated from Butler University in 2011 with BAs in International Studies, Spanish, and Anthropology.
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MAIN STAGE JUDGES Pam Christenson Pam Christenson is the Director of Business & Economic Development for Madison Gas and Electric. Prior to her work with MGE, Pam held positions in both the public and private sector including 15 years in a number of different roles with the State of Wisconsin. While working at the Wisconsin Department of Commerce, she served as the Director of the Bureau of Entrepreneurship and Technology Development and the Administrator for the Division of Business Development which housed the agency’s economic development and financial programs.
Leah Haman Leah Haman is an Intellectual Property Manager at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. WARF partners with university researchers on patenting and licensing their discoveries and then providing grants back to UW–Madison to continue that cycle of innovation. Leah helps identify and protect innovations resulting from university research in the physical sciences space, including engineering and computer sciences. Prior to joining WARF in 2009, she worked for Epic, a healthcare software company. She holds a B.S. in industrial engineering from UW–Madison.
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EARLY STAGE JUDGES Dr. Aimee Arnoldussen Dr. Aimee Arnoldussen is an Innovation and Commercialization Specialist at Discovery to Product where she helps develop healthcare, life science, and social science innovations. She has an integrated background in research, business, healthcare, and the development of medical technologies. Her research was awarded over $6M in grants from the NIH, Department of Defense and Google and was featured in magazines, newspapers and TV. She received her PhD in Neuroscience from the UW-Madison, MS in Biology from University of Southern California and a BS/BA in Cognitive Science and Human Development from the University of California, San Diego.
Dr. Kwadwo Owusu-Ofori Dr. Kwadwo Owusu-Ofori is the Founder and CEO of Satori Food Project. Satori is a consumer healthcare company that uses UX design to build medicine for the human body like coders build apps for phones. His first product, Twi Pods, are coffee pods fortified with vitamins and minerals that improve mental health and wellness. Dr. Owusu-Ofori earned his BS in Biochemistry from NC State University, and his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from UWMadison. He is also professionally certified in LEAN Startup, LEAN Leadership, and Quality Improvement.
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EARLY STAGE JUDGES Laura Kaiser Laura Kaiser, Communications Director at Wisconsin Technology Council, lives for connecting people within the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Wisconsin. Using social media, newsletters, outreach, networking and mentoring, her mission is to ensure valuable connections are established and nurtured. She currently also volunteers for the MARS Returnship Program, judging the Wisconsin Innovation Awards, and mentoring at MKE Tech Hub’s FOR-M Program. A UW-Madison graduate with degrees in Sociology and English, Laura also enjoys nurturing her own two side businesses.
Michael Williams Michael Williams has over 25 years of experience as a financial and operations executive in small, mid-sized and large companies. He has direct experience in managing small and mid-sized companies through expansive growth and is well versed in start-up businesses' challenges and their specific needs. He has experience starting and running his own consulting business that helped small to mid-sized companies raise capital for growth. He is currently the Director of Entrepreneurship Activities and the Director of the Business and Entrepreneurship Clinic at the Wisconsin School of Business.
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MAIN STAGE Transcend Madison Innovation Competition 2021
30Yourself The name of our project is 30Yourself. It is a mobile self improvement application. The product is built around short term goals aimed to be completed in a 30 day time frame. The application has hundreds of built in goals created by our team as well as allows the user to build their own. The application sends users daily notifications about their tasks necessary to complete their goal, as well as reflection stats on how well they performed. The beta version is in the IOS.
Agrowhere Agrowhere: An aerial imagery service provider for farmers to help provide control over their flooding issues. This insight is achieved using well-timed, high resolution, multi-spectral aerial imagery combined with unique geospatial processing models. The resulting report is a tool for farmers to use in their planning efforts and for making sure they are receiving a fair return on their insurance claims.
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CorrectWorker CorrectWorker is a mobile application that provides an online identity for tradespeople in Nigeria through customer reviews. Currently, the market for services like plumbing, auto repair, and landscaping is informal, with poor visibility and reliability for customers and professionals alike. Our application allows customers to curate reviews for individual tradespeople as well as post jobs and receive bids. This gives workers the opportunity to build an online presence as a trusted professional.
CREATE NGOs need technical assistance to maximize the amount of funding they gain through donations on their website. Most NGOs currently have generic websites that cater to all persons who access their website. We seek to create tailored, personalized websites for NGOs based on previous data for specific audiences. Our solution will maximise the amount of donations these NGOs get through their website by increasing recurrent donations and attracting new donors.
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EduReality EduReality develops virtual reality programs to supplement labs in higher education. The past year has taught us just how valuable virtual learning tools can be, and our team is dedicated to producing quality, accessible content for a variety of educational audiences. We are developing for the latest portable, standalone headsets to combine the cutting edge of consumer VR with a tried-and-true business model.
EWPanel Many people feel like they don't drink enough water. The AquaMate smart water bottle is designed to make this problem go away. By making it easy to see how much water you consume and how much you should to consume to reach a healthy amount, anyone who wants to be healthier can benefit from our product. Our water bottle uses sensors to detect and track how much water is consumed out of it, and gives that information wirelessly to an app on your phone.
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Fits Fits aims to help people with one of the most common everyday problems, what do I wear today? Many people have clothing stuffed away in the closet or in drawers that they may have forgotten about, our fashionsoftware application allows you to import your entire closet onto your phone. Our software will remove the background and tag the image with several attributes. From there you can make outfits on your phone and get statistics about your wardrobe.
Fity Fity, the clothing app of the future. With clothing today, people are limited by both their closet and wallet. To wear some clothing, we have to either go to a store or go online and try to search for them. Regardless, we are limited to what’s on the rack or what’s in stock. With Fity, an AR clothing freemium service, users can create, buy, sell, and even share their VR clothing and outfits. For free, users can pick from an entire library clothes, this app benefits anyone who wears clothes.
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Hark.tv Hark.tv is a blockchain based video streaming platform that allows viewers to donate to creators and nonprofits simply by watching their stream. By partnering with the Theta Network, we can make use of a peer-to-peer streaming technology that rewards viewers with cryptocurrency for sending stream data to other viewers. Our platform lets users donate that reward to the causes and campaigns that they care about the most.
Imhotech Solutions We are working towards creating a simple, easy-to-navigate electronic health record that will assist doctors and nurses in improving data keeping. We want to provide an enjoyable and protected health experience for all South Africans by: Increasing efficiency at which healthcare professionals perform their work, improving patient data privacy by digitizing medical records to help prevent patient data loss, and providing personalized antenatal care for all women.
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Lightbulb Entrepreneurship is hard. At Lightbulb, we believe that in this day and age, Location should no longer be a barrier to innovation. By building a community centric platform, we're giving entrepreneurs the data they need to validate their idea and bring it to market. We're building out tools to help with skill based talent matching to help you connect with the people you need. All while building out a next gen dataset for investors to get insights about early stage ideas.
Metamorph We are developing a mindfulness and productivity app to help people manage their lives. It can be really difficult to balance time properly in a way that is productive and beneficial to mental health. The features on the app are optimized for helping young people with their selfimprovement journeys.
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My Home Stars My Home Stars is an educational platform delivering high quality learning resources to Uganda’s under resourced communities such as refugee camps. Our first released and adapted product is the 5 STA-Z, a board game based on the four core subjects in the Ugandan primary education curriculum. The 5 STA-Z is a low cost, student centered, fun and engaging game that can be used by individuals and student groups of up to 5 students aged 8 to 14 years old.
Nebula Education Nebula Education is a business that aims to fulfill the demand in the modern education market for hands-on STEM learning projects at an accessible price. Our business aims to retail kit-style STEM projects, made for a variety of age ranges and topic areas. Nebula Education is perfect for the at-home learner and the school district alike, with projects that integrate seamlessly into the existing curriculum and add a hands-on element to learning.
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Pill Skills Did you know the FDA cites that 40% of adult Americans struggle or can't swallow pills? Most commonly, children are taught under times of stress when the medication is needed. This decreases their chance of success and increases their likelihood of a negative experience. The Pill Skills Beginner Kit proactively teaches children how to swallow pills to prevent them from becoming part of the 40%.
ScholarLinQ ScholarLinQ uses scalable, cloud-based technology to address knowledge gaps around preparing and paying for college through our customizable training that are accessible to EVERYONE.
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Superfood Coffee Our product idea is a coffee drink with unique superfood ingredients. Superfood ingredients are usually mixed in with water or smoothies and it does not taste good, to say the least. Having superfood-rich coffee will save the hassle and provide an easier, tastier alternative for healthconscious and active people.
The Storyteller The "Storyteller" is a mobile app that enhances the museum experience. Not only does it empower the user to customize their tour based on personal interest, but also connects art-education, entertainment, and consumer market.
VR Klassroom A web based platform for gamified VR lessons. Lessons contain checkpoints so teachers can monitor students progress. Lessons are based on audio information stream and interacting in a VR space
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EARLY STAGE Transcend Madison Innovation Competition 2021
AquaCoach Many people feel like they don't drink enough water. The AquaMate smart water bottle is designed to make this problem go away. By making it easy to see how much water you consume and how much you should to consume to reach a healthy amount, anyone who wants to be healthier can benefit from our product. Our water bottle uses sensors to detect and track how
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much water is consumed out of it, and gives that information wirelessly to an app on your phone.
arXiva Most academic papers are posted online as a preprint before publication. Despite remaining nearly unchanged since its creation 30 years ago, arXiva is among the top 10 largest open access preprint servers. Arxiva seeks to add community-requested features to arXiva, making it more accessible to both the public and researchers. Arxiva offers a powerful search algorithm tracking which papers are important, an ability to save and recommend papers, and hosts discussion areas for each paper.
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bit Beauty The general makeup industry is environmentally unsustainable and ethnically uninclusive. The solution involves scanning one's face using a device. Artificial neural network models determine the individual's unique skin tone, allowing us to ship a custom bottle to the customer. Foundation, as the name ironically suggests, is essential for any devoted makeup user. Any user of foundation makeup who is looking to streamline their daily routine can benefit from this product.
Bus Buddy Bus Buddy (BB) offers an alternative to running after the bus or standing at the bus station waiting for the bus. The app is meant to promote using the Madison bus service. Not only will it encourage Madison to continue developing its bus services, but it also targets two of the UN’s sustainability goals: good health and infrastructure.
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EcoCoasters EcoCoasters are handmade wooden coasters containing designs representing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The problem is the lack of knowledge of the SDGs among the public. We are going to create sustainable coasters to spread awareness of the SDGs. The public benefits from our solution. The more people that know about the SDGs, the faster we can achieve the SDG goals by 2030.
Feedforward Feedforward is an optimization app that would deliver unique AI-driven recommendations for how one should organize their time for greater selfsatisfaction. Aimed at college students, this app would generate realistic schedules based on that person’s emotions after various activities. The utilization of AI to learn and understand the individual’s distinct path to happiness through constant feedback would help the user manage a hectic life while maintaining emotional stability.
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H(ear)Free H(ear)Free is an all-in-one hearing aid that uses automatic frequency adjustment to adjust the device regularly according to the hearing ability of the user. We integrate the hardwares for a hearing aid and the device used to measure the ability of the person to detect frequencies in one device that can automatically detect their hearing loss and adjust the hearing aid accordingly on a regular basis eliminating the need to visit the ENT regularly.
HiddenGems With HiddenGems, discreet personal safety will become accessible in areas it never has before. Our waterproof, stainless steel emergency device is a button discreetly placed on the backside of a keychain. We aim to make individuals walking alone at night feel safe and protected by wearing jewelry pieces that can alert authorities as well as make a loud alarm sound to deter attackers and get the attention of bystanders.
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Holo Walk Holographic Advertisement. Every company wants the most efficient way to reach its customers. The goal of an advertisement is to reach as many people as possible and capture their attention and this is exactly what Holographic Advertisement does. We have two business models; the first is to have a small rover projecting a holographic ad above itself; the second model is placing a small projector in whatever location we like and having it project holographic ads.
MeSearch We're developing a web and mobile app called MeSearch to bridge the divide between the world of academia and the general public. We present technical topics to users with varying backgrounds and topics of interest using simplified graphic and everyday language in a socialmedia/forum-style format. This app saves both researchers and non-researchers time by making the sharing of current research easier to understand, more convenient to access, and more engaging to interact with.
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MinerNet MinerNet is a blockchain platform to organize the mineral resource industry. It reduces cheating, cost hikes, limitation of market size, and unfair distribution of power overpricing by making a unified platform for bidding on coal shipments, creating an open international marketplace, creating an end-to-end immutable record of transactions. Mines have a bigger customer base, buyers have a reliable platform for buying minerals internationally, efficient supply chain makes commodities cheaper.
MyFlash MyFlash is an educational flashcard app that supports a variety of different learning styles. Most flashcard apps on the market retain a very formulaic structure. They focus very heavily on text, which is fine for some learners, but puts others at a major disadvantage if their style of learning doesn’t conform. MyFlash targets unorthodox learners who fall outside the range of what a conventional flashcard app would include--whether that be auditory, visual, or illustrative concepts.
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PopulAR CPG companies invest heavily in AB testing. PopulAR empowers these companies to perform immersive testing remotely, at a lower cost, with greater control. PopulAR is a B2B AR testing platform (PAAS). It allows companies to upload CADs into stock, customizable environments, testers to access them remotely via cell or VR headset, and facilitates testing via question overlays and voice/biomarker capture. Companies test with greater speed, scale, quality, control, efficiency.
Recyclo Bot The Recycle Helper, an app that helps determine the recyclability of any product. When looking at a product, it can be confusing to tell if it’s trash or recycling, especially with the different rules from companies. This app would help prevent thousands of pounds of recycling from going into landfills and raise the purity levels of recycling by preventing trash from contaminating it. This App would be created in partnership with municipalities to match their need and educating the general population.
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StoreItWith StoreItWith provides a service of connecting people who have extra space with those that are looking for storage. Renters can find a cheaper price than anywhere else while hosts can make passive income. We strive to create a seamless experience for people on both sides of the transaction.
Th1nk Th1nk’s goal is to make shopping for sustainable clothing and accessories an effortless experience for consumers who want to make a change through their purchases. By compiling the sustainable lines of well-known brands and putting them all in one place, Th1nk removes the hassle that comes with searching for sustainable versions of their favorite brands. This allows the consumer to pick from a wide range of products and designs while they still all hold one thing in common, their sustainability.
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KEY MEMBERS Aditya Parihar
is a 4th-year student at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison and the President of Transcend UW, where he is responsible for fundraising and maintaining relationships with UW-Madison faculty, sponsors, and mentors in the Madison startup community. He previously served as the Events Lead, where he was responsible for planning and managing Transcend UW’s weekly events leading up to the competition. He also co-founded Boosted Chews, a caffeinated chocolate chew startup in Fall 2019, and participated in the Madison Fall 2020 gBETA Cohort. Aditya is a Chemical
ADITYA PARIHAR
Engineering major and will be graduating in May 2021. Upon graduation, he will join Pyran as a
President of Transcend UW
Zach McGovern
Research Engineer here in Madison, WI.
is a Senior at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison and the current Vice President of Transcend UW. As Vice President, Zach is responsible for managing the executive team and assisting them in reaching their organizational goals within the UW-Madison campus and greater entrepreneurial community. Zach has also played an integral role in the planning and execution of the Transcend Madison 2021 Competition by ensuring that Transcend Madison competitors are set up to meet their project goals through consistent communication. Zach is majoring in Finance and Information Systems and expects to graduate in May 2021. Going forward, Zach will be joining General Mills in Minneapolis as a Financial Analyst.
ZACH MCGOVERN Vice President of Transcend UW
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MEET OUR TEAM
KELSEY HICKOK
KIT CHOW
ANGIE FARRIS
PAUL PAK
Events Lead
Marketing Lead
Web Lead
Outreach Lead
SHREYANS SARAOGI
ABHIJEET MANOHAR
ADDISON LATTERELL
SHIVISH MAKKAR
Events Coordinator
Secretary
Treasurer
Outreach Coordinator
ANNIKA OLSEN
ABBY KRAUSE
JEFF MEYERS
AKSHAT RAIKA
Marketing Coordinator
Marketing Coordinator
Marketing Coordinator
Coordinator
Not Pictured: S t e p h a n H a n z l i k , A n g e l a H o u g h t a l i n g , Staff Advisor: S t e p h a n i e S a l a z a r K a n n
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Matthew Redlinger
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS, TO OUR MENTORS, TO OUR JUDGES TO OUR ALUMNI, TO OUR COMPETITORS, and TO OUR TEAM!
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