Participation deadline looms for NY business plan competition

Albany, NY--With a participation deadline of March 29, the New York State Business Plan Competition, to be held April 26 at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany, invites student entrepreneurs from colleges and universities across New York to submit business plans for innovations in areas such as nanotechnology, healthcare, information technology, and clean energy. Participants are expected to compete for more than $100,000 in prizes and $20,000 in in-kind services.

This year, Syracuse University joins the UAlbany NanoCollege, UAlbany’s School of Business, and the Lally School of Management and Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in presenting the competition, which encourages students from diverse academic areas to work collaboratively to create a multi-disciplinary approach to their research and business proposals.

SEFCU, an upstate NY credit union, will again serve as the Title Sponsor for the competition, which is seeing growth in number and competitiveness of the entries, says Professor Gina O’Connor, director of the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship at the Lally School of Management and Technology at RPI. She adds that the competition should become an important source of economic development in the State.

Last year's grand prize winner was Helios, a company comprising students from Syracuse University that developed an ultraviolet engineering technology to sterilize medical tools and equipment. In addition, three companies were named winners of individual tracks: RadLab (Nanotechnology), led by Columbia University students who developed a low-cost solution to wasteful radiator heating systems; MICROrganic Technologies (Cleantech/Sustainability), made up of RPI students targeting commercialization of a microbial fuel cell for industrial and municipal wastewater treatment; and Broodr.com (Services/Non-profit), consisting of Syracuse University students and designed to create an aggregated marketplace for unique products, designs, and inventions.

A panel of judges that includes more than 30 regional and national venture capitalists, angel investors, investment bankers, and seasoned entrepreneurs will select the winning teams.

Again, the deadline for submission of applications is Thursday, March 29, at 11:59 p.m. For more information, and to submit an application, please visit www.cnse.albany.edu/NYSBusinessPlanCompetition.aspx.

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