Student Startup Challenge News

3D Creations takes first place and receives $7,500 in prize money in the Business’ New Venture Business Plan Competition

3D Creations, a product company of the UWM Student Startup Challenge (SSC) this past year, has reached yet another pinnacle in their recent entrepreneurial successes. Jesse Depinto and Matthew Juranitch, co-founders of the company, have received first prize in the Lubar School of Business’ New Venture Business Plan Competition. The prize money of $7,500 will help in bringing their tabletop 3-D scanning system to the market.

NCIIA and the UWM SSC team up

The UWM Student Startup Challenge (SSC) leadership team is pleased to announce that the program has recently been granted funding from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA). The Course and Program grant, totaling $35,000 that will be spent over the next two years, aids UWM student innovators in achieving their entrepreneurial goals. NCIIA members pride themselves on being a community that looks to support future innovators and to provide resources that assist higher education institutions' entrepreneurship programs across the nation.

The winning teams and their product ideas are:

3D Creations – Jesse Depinto and Matthew Juranitch:
This team already operates a business that sells and services 3-D printers. Now the two engineering undergraduates are developing a tabletop 3-D scanner system that uses white light from a common LCD projector to generate a 3-D model. The product will produce a safe, inexpensive and accurate scan of parts of the human body. The team will investigate medical applications, such as use in creating custom orthotics.

The main goal of the 2012 Student Startup Challenge is to create opportunities for students to gain practical entrepreneurial skills and experiences by applying theoretical knowledge acquired at UWM to launching startups. UWM currently offers several courses across various colleges that teach entrepreneurial skills. Students are encouraged to use academic and campus resources to launch and run their own companies. Graduating students in all majors who want to become tech entrepreneurs will graduate not just with a diploma, but with the experience of launching a company on their resumes.