The Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Michigan State University announced the 15 semifinalist teams selected to compete in its sixth annual Burgess New Venture Challenge. Three teams are from the College of Engineering.
On April 4, the Burgess Institute will host MSU's premier pitch competition at the Kellogg Center in East Lansing from 4 to 8 p.m. The annual competition highlights top student entrepreneurs and celebrates Michigan State University's growing venture creation ecosystem.
"The Burgess New Venture Challenge isn't merely a competition," shared Paul Jaques, managing director for venture creation. "It's an immersive educational experience designed to foster student ventures. BNVC is crafted to nurture participants through a comprehensive journey, emphasizing critical thinking about their concepts. Students dedicate themselves to refining and mitigating risks associated with their ideas. They develop invaluable competencies through hands-on experiences in market research, customer discovery, and understanding supply chains. These skills equip students for success in advancing their startups and enable them to contribute to innovation within established companies."
2024's BNVC semifinalists will pitch their ideas during a private session before the student showcase opens to the public at 4 PM. With only five finalist slots available, student venturers must convince a panel of expert judges they have what it takes to compete for the $50,000 in total scholarship prizes.
BNVC requires student applicants to be competition-ready: To qualify to compete, students must enroll in the Burgess Institute's intensive Discovery and Launch programs, collect feedback from potential customers, business leaders, and venture coaches, and form collaborative teams around their submitted ideas.
“The Burgess New Venture Challenge allows entrepreneurial students to showcase their ventures to the campus and the local community. These students have put in extra time and effort conducting research, writing business plans, and validating their ideas above and beyond their regular academic schedules. I am honored to work with the Burgess Institute students and witness their accomplishments throughout their entrepreneurial journey," stated Lori Fischer, director of operations for the Burgess Institute.
2024's Burgess New Venture Challenge semifinalist applicants represent six colleges and over a dozen disciplines of study. The Engineering semifinalists are:
Odin Classroom
- Aman Dhruva Thamminana, College of Engineering
Odin Classroom is an online coding platform to reduce friction in computer science courses.
Targetist
- Rohan Banerjee, College of Engineering
Targetist is an innovative AI-based universal task scheduler and project planner with a powerful, versatile, and adaptive engine.
YouLearn
- Advait Paliwal, College of Engineering
YouLearn provides personalized and collaborative courses on any topic.
This story originally ran on the Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation website.