Sylvain and Dabas Place at CMU New Venture Challenge 2022

Ali Dabas and Rourke Sylvain holding the 2nd place high growth check for five thousand dollars.
Ali Dabas and Rourke Sylvain placed 2nd in the challenge.

Four Michigan Tech teams pitched their idea during the virtual New Venture qualifying rounds and made it to the finals! These Michigan Tech innovators will took their pitch on the road to compete in person at Central Michigan University in the New Venture Challenge (NVC), held from 2-8 p.m. Friday (April 22).

This is the 12th year Michigan Tech has collaborated with CMU to offer our students the opportunity to compete at the New Venture Challenge in Mount Pleasant. Students were allow to compete in either the two-minute elevator pitch competition or the seven-minute business model competition, as well as a gallery competition.

Qualifying in the Two-Minute Pitch competition:

  • Jakob Christiansen with ProBoard, an e-commerce platform to solve issues in the construction material supply chain.

Qualifying in the Seven-Minute Pitch competition:

  • Bayle Golden with SafeRow, an innovative wearable device designed to keep children safe when every second counts.
  • Rourke Sylvain with imi (integrated molecular innovations), an electrochemical biosensor for T4 detection. BME MS student Rourke Sylvain and BS student Ali Dabas traveled to CMU last Friday and won 2nd place.
  • Jordan Craven with Tall and Small Designs, a technology company that provides software as a service to retailers who sell clothes online.

The competitions offer over $60,000 in prizes and in-kind services. The awards ceremony began at 7 p.m. and was livestreamed.