Click on the picture above or the link below to find out more about the 2013 InVenture Prize competition! Relive all the exciting moments by watching the recorded broadcast. Click on each team name to learn more about the competitors and their inventions.

Flickr Album
Competition Photos

Competing Teams

BioPIN

BioPIN
People's Choice
Steven Wojcio
Computer Science
Forsyth, GA
Scott Groveman
Electrical Engineering
Roswell, GA
BioPIN is a new way of collecting and verifying PINs that looks at a lot more than just numbers.

"We have learned so much from InVenture already. Winning would give us the ability to really take our idea to the next level!"

Chewbots

Chewbots
1st Place
Christopher Taylor
Mechanical Engineering
Stone Mountain, GA
A line of fully automated robotic dog toys that make owning a dog easier and are more exciting and interactive for dogs.

"The InVenture prize is the opportunity for me to take my idea and turn it into a real product that helps make happier dogs and happier owners"

Hue

Hue
Basheer Tome
Industrial Design
Conyers, GA
Hue is a toaster that perfectly toasts your bread by color.

"The clock's ticking and the kitchen market is fierce. Winning the Inventure Prize would give me the resources and a fighting chance to bring my toaster to market."

Spark

Spark
Sam Elia
Electrical Engineering
Augusta, GA
Grant Heffley
Business Administration
Lawrenceville, GA
Spark is the credit card-sized cell phone wall charger that fits in your wallet for convenient charging on the go.

"Winning the Inventure Prize would be instrumental in achieving our goal to eliminate the battery life problems experienced by millions of smartphone users every day."

iSleep

iSleep
Zack Zalesky
Mechanical Engineering
Atlanta, GA
Joseph Hickey
Mechanical Engineering
Houston, TX
A baby soothing platform that reproduces that motions and vibrations of a car ride in the comfort and safety of your own home.

"Winning InVenture would help us bring our infant soother to market, which would help parents put their children to sleep safely and efficiently in the comfort of their own home."

AnemoCheck

AnemoCheck
2nd Place
Erika Tyburski
Biomedical Engineering
Miami, FL

AnemoCheck

"Winning the Inventure title means transforming our device into a product. Many great ideas from a university research lab never mature to market. Winning the Inventure prize would mean that our invention, created at Tech, could have a chance of being refined to a commercialized product because of the resources and expertise from Georgia Tech."

Judges

Behrooz Abdi
Behrooz is a high-tech industry entrepreneur, who has taken on numerous operational, executive, and board director roles, and has invested in several private and public companies. Several of these companies have been acquired, creating over six billion dollars of cumulative value. Since 2012, he has been CEO and President of InvenSense, Inc. (NYSE: INVN), a world leading provider of sensors for smart phones, drones, wearables, smart homes and automobiles. In December 2016, InvenSense agreed to be acquired by TDK Corporation for $1.3B, where Behrooz serves as the President of the MEMS Business Group, as well as CEO of the InvenSense subsidiary. Prior to InvenSense, Behrooz was Executive Vice President and General Manager at NetLogic Microsystems (NASDAQ: NETL), a leader in intelligent semiconductor solutions for the Internet, acquired by Broadcom in 2011. Before that, he was the President and CEO of RMI Corporation, which he merged with NetLogic in 2009. Before joining RMI, Behrooz served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of CDMA Technologies at Qualcomm, Inc., a provider of wireless technology and services. Prior to joining Qualcomm, he held several operational and engineering leadership positions at Motorola, Inc. As Vice President and General Manager for Motorola Semiconductor’s wireless mobile division, he contributed to building many wireless technologies, and participated in the early growth of consumer cell phones, earning him Motorola’s Distinguished Innovator Award. Behrooz holds a BSEE from Montana State University, and MSEE from Georgia Institute of Technology, and has over 20 patents in chip design, software, and sensors.

Lisa King

David Phelps

Hosts

Bahareh Azizi

Headshot
Faith Salie

Faith Salie is an Emmy-winning contributor to CBS Sunday Morning and a regular on NPR’s Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me!  She’s also host of the new podcast “Real Good.” She’ll debut Off-Broadway later this year in her solo show, Approval Junkie, based on her memoir of the same name. She's a storyteller for The Moth with her story viewed over 2 million times and included in the New York Times bestseller Occasional Magic.  Faith’s hosted five seasons of the PBS show Science Goes to the Movies, but perhaps her biggest science cred was her role on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which got her beamed up and landed her on a trading card worth hundreds of cents. Faith grew up in Atlanta and is a Rhodes scholar who graduated from Harvard, aka the GA Tech of the North. She lives in New York City, where she continues to say “y’all" and often bakes Coca-Cola cake.