The judges have chosen 3D Dental Printers as the 2015 Student Innovator of the Year and grand prize recipient of $6,000. 3D Dental Printers was created by Cindy Barrowes, an undergraduate student in the Marriot School of Business.
This year’s competition started with over 40 teams which were narrowed down to eight finalists. Innovation enthusiasts, interested investors and supportive peers packed the WSC Varsity Theatre Thursday to watch the finalists present their inventions.
3D Dental Printers, awarded the first place prize, was designed to make dental surgery easier. Currently, dentists do most surgeries free hand, using surgical guides only on the most difficult cases. To change this, Barrowes created IDT 3D printer systems to make surgical guides inexpensive and FDA approved.
Second place and $3,000 was presented to Socialytics, LLC, which uses new data science technology to analyze the return on investment of a company’s social media presence.
The $2,000 third place award was given to Flip, a safe mobile app for buying and selling locally.
The runner up title and $1,000 award went to Buddy Buzz, a set of two bracelets with buttons that scuba divers can press to buzz the bracelet on his or her buddy’s arm in order to obtain the diver’s attention while underwater.
After seeing the quality of the students’ work, the college’s advancement council decided to donate an extra $3,000 in prize money for the following:
ACET award for best engineered: Wiithu was awarded $1,000 for creating a social media platform that creates an intimate, secure digital space for the most important moments in life.
ACET award for most innovative: Wavio was awarded $1,000 for their hands-free, two-way radio that allows outdoor sports enthusiasts to quickly communicate without a cell signal. Wavio was also voted to "Crowd Favorite" and received another $1,000 prize.
ACET award for first place: In addition to the $5,000 expected for taking first place, ACET members chose to award Cindy Barrowes and her 3D Dental Printers with another $1,000, bringing her total prize money to $6,000.
For more information about the Student Innovator of the Year competition, sponsored by the Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology and the Marriott School Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship, can be found at sioy.byu.edu.
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