Click on the picture above or the link below to find out more about the 2020 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

Aerodyme

Aerodyme
2nd Place
Joy Bullington
Industrial Engineering
Johns Creek, GA
Tyler Boone
Mechanical Engineering
Marietta, GA
Jayce Delker
Mechanical Engineering
Monroe, GA
Aerodyme Technologies aims to provide the most practical and efficient rear-mounted aerodynamic attachment for tractor trailers available on the market that eliminates driver interaction altogether.

Considering all that we have accomplished thus far with very little funding, the exposure, funds and networking opportunity that the Inventure Prize provides would give us everything we need to succesfully bring this product to market.

Canary

Canary
People's Choice
Stephen Ralph Jr
Computer Engineering
Sandy Springs, GA
Sims Pettway
Mechanical Engineering
Lookout Mountain, GA
Noah Waldron
Computer Science
Murfreesboro, TN
Canary provides students a platform to read and write reviews about their internship and co-op experiences and provides employers insight on how to improve their programs to more effectively convert talent to full-time.

Winning the InVenture Prize would provide us the funds and resources to grow our team to further develop the software platform in preparation for this next internship and co-op season, roll it out to more schools beyond Georgia Tech with a marketing campaign, and establish strategic partnerships with employers and universities.

Nasolution

Nasolution
Brandon Kleber
Mechanical Engineering
Atlanta, GA
Jacob Banov
Biomedical Engineering
Atlanta, GA
Dan Liubovich
Biomedical Engineering
Shrewsbury, MA
Adam Verga
Materials Science and Engineering
Newton, MA
A device for the safe self-administration of intranasal prescription medication at home, allowing remote regulation and monitoring by the user’s health care provider.

Winning InVenture Prize would give us the resources necessary to curb prescription drug abuse while opening new markets for much-needed treatments.

Queues

Queues
1st Place
Samuel Porta
Computer Science
Marietta, GA
Sohan Choudhury
Computer Science
Fairfield, CT
Jarod Schneider
Computer Science
Covington, GA
Michael Verges
Computer Science
Mandeville, LA
Akshay Patel
Industrial and Systems Engineering
Camilla, GA
Queues provides the best live wait times for your favorite dining locations.

Long lines suck. They cost you time and cost businesses money. Winning Inventure Prize will help us bring Queues to millions, making long lines a thing of the past.

Watchdog

Watchdog
Nicolette Sam
Electrical Engineering
Weston, FL
Mehnaz Ruksana
Computer Science
Suwanee, GA
Cole Otto
Mechanical Engineering
Dunwoody, GA
Hannah Blankenship
Electrical Engineering
Wheaton, IL
Ryan Fadell
Mechanical Engineering
Chicago, IL
Jason Diaz
Mechanical Engineering
Atascocita, TX
A portable security device used to protect personal belongings in public spaces.

Winning Inventure Prize would mean we can turn this small idea into a reality to give college students and remote workers peace of mind when they need to step away from their belongings.

W8R Systems

W8R Systems
Curtis Lary
Mechanical Engineering
Miami, FL

Overhead Robotic Delivery System

Winning the Inventure Prize would mean that you will see the W8R System brought to locations around the world! The funding would be put towards detailed system engineering for expansion and certification.

Judges

Shannon Evanchec
Shannon Evanchec graduated in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from Georgia Tech. Upon graduating from the Institute, she was selected to the CREATE-X program, where she co-founded TruePani based on insights gleaned while working as a research assistant in the Brown Water Group. Today, Shannon is the CEO of TruePani, a water quality and cleantech startup which has developed two products and completed consulting projects worldwide focused on reducing environmental contaminants such as lead in drinking water and carbon dioxide emissions for over 400,000 people. Shannon’s work has won first place at the Rice University Water Technologies Design Competition, was awarded the 2020 Dean's Impact Award, was named a “Promising Prototype to Watch in the Year Ahead” by Engineering for Change Magazine, and has won the People’s Choice Award at the 2016 InVenture Prize- the nation’s largest undergraduate research competition. Shannon has been featured on various media outlets such as Atlanta Business Chronicle, Fox5 Atlanta, Vunela, Atlanta Inno, Georgia Tech News, and Hypepotamus and has spoken at numerous events and has spoken at numerous events and conferences about water quality and facets of entrepreneurship.

Garret Langley
Garrett Langley is a technology entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in early stage companies across Banking, Automotive, Live Events, and now in Public Safety. Langley currently serves as CEO of Flock (flocksafety.com), an Atlanta based startup focused on making communities safer. At Flock, Langley has raised over $20M in venture capital from YCombinator, Matrix Partners, and Founders Fund since starting the company in late 2017. Today, they provide service to customers in over 36 states and help police solve more than 15 crimes every hour.  Prior to Flock, Langley launched Clutch, a monthly car subscription service that provides the perfect car for every day, and Experience (acquired by Cox Enterprises), a mobile technology company focused on helping fans have fun at live events. Outside of work, Langley serves on the Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of Trustees and the Alexander Thorpe Fund Board of Trustees. While at Georgia Tech, he served various leadership roles at his fraternity Sigma Chi. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, Megan, son, Sumner, and dog, Olive.

Tripp Rackley
Tripp Rackley is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kenzie Lane Innovation (KLI), based in Atlanta, Georgia. KLI develops technology companies with a focus on solving complex consumer needs. A graduate of Georgia Tech, Rackley is an entrepreneur with a background building and growing successful businesses. His first company was nFront, Inc., the pioneer of Internet banking, which he took public in 1999 and later merged with Digital Insight in 2000. The company was sold to Intuit in 2007 for $1.35 billion and then to NCR in 2014 for $1.65 billion. In 2005, Rackley founded Firethorn, the first mobile payments company. Firethorn was sold to chip giant QUALCOMM in November of 2007. Rackley’s next company, Experience, is an award-winning mobile technology company that empowers fans to personalize their live event experience. Founded by Rackley in 2011, Experience serves more than 350 sports and entertainment entities. The company was acquired in 2014. Clutch Technologies, which Rackley started in 2014, is the pioneer of subscription and mobility services software for the automotive industry. Now a Cox Automotive brand, Clutch serves dozens of automotive manufacturers and hundreds of dealers nationwide. Rackley has won many prestigious awards throughout his career including the Bank Technology News Innovators Hall of Fame and the MIT Distinguished Entrepreneur Achievement Award. He is also an inductee into the Technology Hall of Fame of Georgia and the TAG Fintech Hall of Fame.

Hosts

Mengwasser outside.
Ashley Mengwasser

Nine-time Emmy award-winning Host, Writer, and Executive Producer Ashley Mengwasser is in her tenth year co-hosting the annual InVenture Prize at Georgia Tech.

 

Ashley began her 15-year career in television hosting GPB’s popular series Georgia Traveler. Travel highlights include skydiving with grandma, boxing with an Olympian, ballroom dancing, and a ghoulish The Walking Dead zombie transformation.

 

This high-school Valedictorian is as brainy as she is brazen. Ashley is the creator of GPB’s “digital-first” series Tiny Mic, Big Designs, featuring young inventors competing in Georgia Tech’s K-12 InVenture Prize.

 

Much of Ashley’s media work is strikingly education focused. She serves as Host of GPB Education’s Emmy-winning Live Exploration programs and also hosts the Classroom Conversations podcast series for Georgia educators, now in its sixth season. The podcast has won a Communicator Award.

 

In the Atlanta community, Ashley emcees awards shows, non-profit galas, and bar and bat mitzvahs (as “Emcee A$H-Money”). Her work as an entertainer has helped raise more than $500,000 for organizations that benefit women and children. She will host Georgia’s 2025 Allie Awards this March.

 

Ashley graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from Agnes Scott College in 2009 with a B.A. in English Literature. She spends non-work hours vacuuming and gallivanting with her two-year-old basset hound, Starla. Starla enjoys peanut butter and sticks…but this isn’t about her.

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.