Innovative Startups, Ideas Win Big Prizes at Pitch Competition
University of Texas at Dallas students, alumni and researchers shared their innovative business initiatives while competing for $170,000 in cash and scholarship prizes during the 2023 Big Idea Competition finals on May 19 at the Blackstone LaunchPad facility on campus.
Hosted by the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE), UT Dallas’ premier pitch contest featured projects in industries ranging from transportation and health to pet care and education.
Routora, led by computer science senior Tom Vazhekatt, won the student competition and $25,000. Routora, which aims to create faster and more cost-efficient, multistop routes for drivers, tested its technology with more than 11,000 beta users, saving them 12,000 hours of drive time and $140,000 in fuel costs. More than 3,300 drivers are on a waiting list for the service.
“Winning the pitch competition was an incredible milestone for us at Routora,” Vazhekatt said. “This prize money will be instrumental in fueling our marketing efforts as we forge valuable partnerships with other apps in the gig economy and social media influencers who can relay our mission to their audiences. We will also be using the funding to help support our development costs as we prepare to launch our mobile app this summer.”
OptiMIND won the Research Commercialization Pitch Track and received $40,000 for a project that uses games to enhance brain and cognition skills across a person’s lifespan.
Dr. Chandramallika Basak, associate professor of psychology in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, said the winnings will provide much-needed funding and an increased opportunity to encourage future potential investors for the project. She also directs the Lifespan Neuroscience and Cognition Lab at UTD’s Center for Vital Longevity.
“This is a very encouraging result,” she said.
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ABOUT THE UT DALLAS COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
The UT Dallas Computer Science program is one of the largest Computer Science departments in the United States with over 4,000 bachelors-degree students, more than 1,010 master’s students, 140 Ph.D. students, 52 tenure-track faculty members, and 42 full-time senior lecturers, as of Fall 2022. With the University of Texas at Dallas’ unique history of starting as a graduate institution first, the CS Department is built on a legacy of valuing innovative research and providing advanced training for software engineers and computer scientists.