TYLER, Texas — Several UT Tyler students received major cash prizes after placing in a contest featuring their entrepreneurial ideas.
The university on Tuesday announced the winners of the third annual Big Idea Pitch Competition, which was hosted by the university’s East Texas Entrepreneurship Center and included 15 teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the Soules College of Business and College of Engineering.
The teams presented various ideas across three tracks, including consumer products and services, health/life science and general.
“The event, tailored for aspiring student entrepreneurs and innovators, showcased an array of groundbreaking concepts spanning diverse sectors, from health applications to automated gardening systems,” said Brandon Reynolds, UT Tyler ETEC acting director. “We congratulate all of the winners.”
Students had a minute to go before a panel of seasoned entrepreneurs, including John Soules Sr., Bill McGaughey and Phil Burks, and present their pitch. First- and second-place winners received cash prizes of $1,000 and $500, respectively.
The winners are the following by the categories:
Consumer Products and Services
- First: Electrical engineering majors Slade Sills of Gladewater and Ryan Cole of Tyler.
- Second: Mechanical engineering major Almutasim Billah Al-manaser of Tyler.
- Third: Marketing major Nikita Chuev of Russia.
Health/Life Science
- First: Electrical engineering major Aminu Haruna of Tyler.
- Second: Information technology major Chadwick Migues of Tyler.
- Third: Electrical engineering major Elvis Donmaaye Sangmen of Ghana.
General
- First: Accounting major Gloria Hernandez of Henderson.
- Second: Electrical engineering majors Maliha Kabir of Bangladesh and Aryan Anand of India.
- Third: Business management major Adrien Joseph Gonzalez of Corpus Christi.
The East Texas Entrepreneurship Center's next event will be the 2024 Business Model Competition, in which contestants will present to potential investors to win prize money for idea development and product launch, according to UT Tyler.