Georgia Tech's annual InVenture Prize competition, which ends Tuesday night with a showdown of six finalist teams, offers plenty to the student entrepreneurs trying to win it.
There's a $15,000 first prize ($10,000 for second), a free U.S. patent filing worth $20,000 for the top two, plus acceptance into the school's startup accelerator program, Flashpoint.
It can also be personal -- "an opportunity to take an idea and make it into something real," as assistant professor of mechanical engineering Craig Forest put it.
Elizabeth LeMar, 23, a biomedical engineering major from Roswell who graduated in December, said her team's invention, a hand-rehabilitation device called Re-hand, means more because of her own mother's experience.
"She went through two carpal tunnel surgeries on her hands," LeMar said. "Just seeing her pain and being able to relate to her -- not just on an emotional level, but, now, also on a biomedical level -- that I can really help, that was really powerful for me."
Re-hand has spawned a company yet. But the four biomedical engineering students behind it are confident. Their device, being tested in clinic and home settings, has received positive feedback, and there is demand for it.
Team member Daphne Vincent, 23, of McDonough, said 30 million Americans suffer from hand weakness as a result of stroke, carpal tunnel, arthritis, or injury.
"You're left unable to do the things you once could with your hand," she said. "You can't hold your toothbrush. You can't button your own shirt."
Until now, she said, the common therapy has been to squeeze a ball. But bored patients often don't do their exercise. It's also hard to measure progress.
Re-hand, a small device expected to cost just over $100, can be used in the home, with measurable results. The patient squeezes a five-finger handle control attached to a computer screen. Squeezing moves an object, perhaps a helicopter, up and down on the screen, in a game.
Keeping it up requires constant and varied pressure, strengthening the fingers, wrist and hand. Software collects data from the patient's usage.
"This could be the first product of a very large company geared to rehabilitation of the whole body," Vincent said. "The idea is to use technology to take rehabilitation into the home setting."
Other finalists: Entripic Wake, an obstacle/rail system for extreme water sports; CourseShark, an online system to create and share class schedules; CardiacTech, a chest retractor for bypass sugery; Stylii, a precise and pressure-sensitive capacitive sylus; and DEfT Pad, a touchscreen device giving guitarists the functionality of a distortion pedal.
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