I-69 Collegiate Innovation Challenge celebrates its Sixth event with five new student winners!
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Marion, IN - The Grant County Economic Growth Council celebrates
its sixth annual I-69 Collegiate Innovation Challenge on February
10-12 with five new student winners: Keegan Hazen from Anderson
University, Leisha Sigler from Ball State University, Rachel
Osterholt from Huntington University, Santiago from Indiana
Wesleyan University, and Joshua Key from Taylor University. The
winning students were awarded an iPad2 for their first place
business concept, Backbone Digital. Backbone Digital's mission was
to provide computer development services to businesses through
local student interns from surrounding universities in East Central
Indiana and provide a center for innovation through Think Tank
Fridays, where businesses could come and have their entrepreneurial
ideas expanded.
This year's winning team was one of the five teams that competed
at the I-69 Collegiate Innovation Challenge this past weekend at
the Ramada Inn in Warsaw, Indiana. Each team was made up of one
student representative from each of the participating universities.
The students were placed into teams Friday afternoon based on the
Basadur Creative Profile, a problem-solving assessment and
collaborated for less than 24-hours on a for-profit business
solution to a provided social problem that dealt with the retention
of college graduates in East Central Indiana.
"The I-69 Challenge was a rare and unique opportunity for me to
interact with talented students from neighboring universities."
shared student winner, Santiago Jaramillo, "Having such high
concentration of creativity and talent in the intimate format of
I-69, it led to some of the most interesting and innovative
conversations I have had."
Saturday afternoon, student teams presented their solution to a
panel of designated judges from the following companies: Indiana
Municipal Power, Purdue University, Vistage, and Pro Prints Gear.
Following the presentations, judges selected the winning teams
following specific criteria that measured items such as:
innovation, profitability, and market potential.
The I-69 Collegiate Innovation Challenge's purpose is designed to
encourage entrepreneurship among students along the I-69 corridor,
provide networking opportunities for students and judges, generate
creative ideas, and allow for collaboration between the five
universities. The Grant County Economic Growth Council's event was
sponsored by: the five participating universities, AT&T, Duke
Energy, Vectren, IEDC, IMPA, and Indiana Michigan Power.
The first I-69 Collegiate Innovation Challenge began in 2006.
