Pictured: Team MERLIN: Winners of TechVenture Challenge.
Wednesday saw the completion of yet another successful TechVenture Challenge. After six years, we are still encouraged that each year the presentations continue to improve and be of higher quality. This can be attributed not only to the student teams and their hard work, but also to the student organizers who improve upon the competition each year, requiring more from the student teams and providing a better educational experience each year. This year, in addition to the prize money provided by CTTC, the student organizers also secured additional prize money thanks to a grant provided by Launch Tennessee and a donation from FireStarter.
In what was a close competition, all four teams provided a good business plan and demonstrated the knowledge gained and applied. The winning team was MERLIN, which formed a business plan around an MRI compatible robot for the surgical treatment of epilepsy, invented by Eric Barth, Bob Webster and colleagues. With a strong presentation, the team demonstrated a firm grasp on many very important aspects of medical device commercialization, including competition, regulatory approval and billing codes. We would like to congratulate not only the winning team, but all the teams, student organizers, sponsors, and mentors who contributed their time and work to this year’s TechVenture Challenge.