Finalists
First Place Finalist: REEcycle
$50,000
REEcycle is a Houston, TX based company reclaiming materials known as rare earth elements from recycled electronics. REEcycle primarily targets neodymium and dysprosium, two rare earth elements essential to the production of consumer electronics, clean energy technologies and national defense systems.
Second Place Finalist: TriFusion Devices
$35,000
TriFusion Devices is a team of graduate students from Texas A&M University, offering breakthrough additive manufacturing (3D printing) products and services, aimed at revolutionizing the healthcare and sports equipment industries in powerful and profitable ways.
Third Place Finalist: Voyager Biomedical
$25,000
Voyager Biomedical is a biomedical startup company focused on the development of better vascular access technologies for use in dialysis and other treatments requiring long-term blood access. By improving upon already-accepted vascular access techniques, Voyager is seeking to make a positive impact quickly in the lives of patients.
Fourth Place Finalist: NuPark
$15,000
NuPark utilizes License Plate Recognition technology to create a virtual parking permit. The company’s software eliminates the need to hire for visual enforcement & instead automates a client’s parking rules in one system. Our clients average a two-month ROI via reduced costs & increased revenue.
Fifth Place Finalist: Siva Therapeutics
$10,000
Siva Therapeutics is developing Targeted Hyperthermia™, a technology for targeting therapeutic heat to solid tumors with gold nanorods and infrared light. Heat is a safe, effective, and affordable way to destroy tumors, and also to stimulate the immune system to prevent spread of the cancer. Siva’s initial therapeutic target is melanoma.
Sixth Place Finalist: CartoFusion Technologies
$5,000
CartoFusion Technologies is a geospatial technology company founded in 2015 as a spin-off from Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi. CartoFusion’s flagship product is SituMap, an easy-to-learn, easy-to-use mapping and planning tool initially marketed for use by public safety and emergency management organizations with plans to expand to other markets.
Elevator Pitch
Elevator Pitch First Place: ECM Technologies
$5,000
ECM Technologies is a Texas A&M University start-up designing collagen for biomedical needs. ECMT’s unique platform technology enables non-animal bacterial collagens for medical devices. ECMT’s business strategy is to develop a wound dressing utilizing a 510(K) regulatory approach, while simultaneously developing products with higher regulatory risk but larger market potential.
Elevator Pitch Second Place: Acoustic Shield
$3,000
Acoustic Shield is an acoustic gunshot detection sensor. The beauty of the design is in the incredibly low price and the ability to distinguish between gunshots and a large assortment of similar noises. While Acoustic Shield is built around the concept of accuracy and deploy-ability, it is also capable of realistic affordability. Acoustic Shield is safe, secure, and reliable.
Elevator Pitch Third Place: Astrapi
$2,000
Astrapi addresses the spectrum crisis using our proprietary spiral modulation. Increasing amounts of content are exhausting valuable spectral capacity. Competing approaches use sine waves to transmit signals, Astrapi introduces spirals. There is no prior art. Among other benefits, spiral communication drives higher data throughput, extends battery life, and mitigates interference.
Semifinalists
Semifinalist: DocResponse
DocResponse is a Houston-based software company focused on medical assessment/clinical decision support. The platform was built by board-certified specialist physician teams and generates a highly accurate differential diagnosis list with percentage likelihood and next steps in care by asking the patient a series of simple questions to help decrease unnecessary utilization.
Semifinalist: Entvantage Diagnostics, Inc.
Entvantage Diagnostics, Inc., an Austin-based development-stage diagnostics company, provides physicians with in-office information on the underlying cause of ear, nose and throat illnesses. We are developing a FDA Class II diagnostic kit that can rapidly identify pathogens causing bacterial sinusitis that will lead to the reduction of unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions.
Semifinalist: Knocki
Knocki transforms ordinary surfaces (walls, tables, doors, etc) into programmable remotes for connected devices and software. Knocki brings accessibility and simplicity to the smart home experience by enabling people to “tap” into their world directly, instead of needing to reach for a physical switch or smartphone.
Semifinalist: NarrativeDx
NarrativeDx is the leading provider of actionable insights from comments to improve patient experience. Our cloud-based, HIPAA-compliant patient experience management platform collects and analyzes verbatim patient feedback (comments) from internal, traditionally silo’d data sources, from CAHPS surveys administered by Press Ganey, National Research Corporation and others, as well as social media and doctor review sites.
Semifinalist: pmBLOX
pmBLOX is a simulation-based project management (PM) tool. We are completely changing the fundamental approach for planning and managing projects. The current approach, used by most tools today, was developed back in the 1950’s and it is woefully insufficient for today’s complex approach projects. Welcome to the revolution.
Semifinalist: Stream Biomedical
Stream Biomedical was founded to address unmet therapeutic needs for individuals experiencing neurologic trauma or degeneration. The initial target application is for treatment of stroke. Stream is commercializing a protein technology which has shown to facilitate neurologic repair in experimental animals when administered after stroke, resulting in dramatic functional improvement.
Semifinalist: WT Industries
WT Industries patent pending, “Pass Through – Tether Management System”, eliminates the need for an armored umbilical necessary for today’s typical ROV Launch and Recovery Systems (LARS). Utilizing this technology we design and build a much smaller, simpler, more versatile and highly mobile containerized LARS system trademarked as “Contain-a-LARS”.
