Alex Connor ’23 is this year’s 1st Place winner of the Paul J. and Kathleen M. Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship’s combined spring competition. Connor, a chemical and biological engineering Ph.D. candidate, took the top prize of $8,000 for his presentation on MegaSilk, a synthetic silk for multiple industries in need of strong lightweight material.

Connor was chosen from a field of 14 entries in a competition that combined the Change the World Challenge spring semester competition and the annual Rensselaer Business Model Competition. Because of the social distancing impact necessitated by the coronavirus, this year’s competition was held virtually. Participants submitted presentation videos that described their business idea.

A panel of nine judges was asked to rate Market Opportunity/Strategy, Competitive Advantage, Customer Discovery Efforts, Business Model, and Team qualities for each entry.

The 2nd Place prize of $5,000 was awarded to mechanical engineering Ph.D. student Adam Ryason ’14, ’20 for his work on Intelligent Medicine, a high-fidelity modeling and physical simulation of coughing patients that he hopes will be useful in the current COVID-19 pandemic landscape. 

Two teams tied for the 3rd place prize of $2,000. Belong is a wellness app designed by Nirav Patel ’20, business management, Sanjana Davuluri ’20, bioinformatics, Ujwal Pandey ’21, computer science/math, and Saketh Dargula ’21, computer science. Vewr is a two-sided marketplace designed by Bailey Ryan ’20, Corey Burns ’20, and Demetre Shanshiashvili ’20, all M.S. in technology commercialization and entrepreneurship students.

Change the World prizes of $1,000 each were awarded to Aida Ayuk ’23, architecture, Nicholas Carey ’20, applied physics, Emmanuel Sylvester ’21, electrical and computer systems engineering, Numfor Mbiziwo-Tiapo ’21, computer science, and the team of Ian Steenstra ’20, computer and systems engineering, and Stone McLaren ’22, computer science.

Additionally, the Severino Center announced the winners of their year-end competitions. Adam Ryason won the Change the World Challenge Best of the Best award of $5,000 for Intelligent Medicine. The overall winner was selected from the winners of the fall Change the World Challenge and those who participated in the spring combined competition.

Established in 2005 by Rensselaer alumnus and entrepreneur Sean O’Sullivan ’85, the Change the World Challenge competition supports entrepreneurship education and inspires Rensselaer students to consider ways to improve the human condition.

In the Rensselaer Class of 1951 Student Entrepreneurship competition, the team behind Vewr took 1st prize. Second place was awarded to EcoForm, and Devello won 3rd prize. These awards are chosen from a pool of teams who worked with the Severino Center throughout the year and showed progress with their idea but may, or may not, have entered a competition. A group of alumni, including a member of the Class of ’51, reviews the business ideas to determine the winners.

The Rensselaer Class of 1951 Student Entrepreneurship Award was established to encourage undergraduate and graduate students to pursue early development of entrepreneurial ideas into successful ventures.

The Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship at Rensselaer guides, mentors, and coaches student-based startup businesses from all disciplines across campus to connect those who are starting businesses to resources and networks within and beyond.