Click on the picture above or the link below to find out more about the 2017 InVenture Prize competition! Relive all the exciting moments by watching the recorded broadcast. Click on each team name to learn more about the competitors and their inventions.

Flickr Album
Competition Photos

Competing Teams

Capable Cane

Capable Cane
Jeffrey McMichael
Mechanical Engineering
Atlanta, GA
The Capable Cane is a walking cane that unfolds into a portable, stable chair.

"Winning the InVenture Prize would provide capital to conduct further testing and expand the prototype to future editions. Additionally, the patent would take the Capable Cane to the next step before production - thereby allowing millions to benefit from its use. "

CauteryGuard

CauteryGuard
1st Place
People's Choice
Jack Corelli
Biomedical Engineering
Philiadelphia, PA
Hunter Hatcher
Biomedical Engineering
Marietta, GA
Dev Mandavia
Biomedical Engineering
Duluth, GA
Devin Li
Biomedical Engineering
Corning, NY
CauteryGuard is a safer electrocautery device - we eliminate any chance of injury caused by electrocautery devices.

"Electrocautery devices are one of the most used AND most misused medical devices. Winning the InVenture Prize would give us the exposure and resources needed to enter the medical device industry. The monetary prize would allow us to mass produce the CauteryGuard which will eliminate injuries from electrocautery devices and save lives. "

CPR+

CPR+
David Ehrlich
Computer Engineering
Portland, OR
Ryan Williams
Computer Engineering
Las Vegas, NV
Samuel Clarke
Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science
Indianapolis, IN
A CPR mask which allows an untrained bystander to perform CPR by collecting vitals and dynamically walking the user through each step of the process.

"Winning the Inventure Prize would give our product the exposure it needs to spread across the country and save as many lives as possible. The monetary prize would help us consolidate enough resources to design our product for production at a large enough scale to have a significant impact on the likelihood of survival from cardiac arrest."

Gaitway

Gaitway
Veronica Young
McDonough, GA
Nora Johnson
Tampa, FL
Gaitway is transportable parallel bars for at-home pediatric physical therapy.

"For us, winning the Inventure prize would mean a successful ending to our time as students at Georgia Tech, and an incredible advent into the world of professional makers."

InternBlitz

InternBlitz
2nd Place
Murtaza Bambot
Duluth, GA
Nathan Dass
Woodbridge, VA
InternBlitz is the common application for internships.

"Nobody likes looking for a job. It's tiring, tedious, and disheartening. Winning InVenture Prize would allow us to bring InternBlitz to millions of students across the nation and help countless people find a meaningful career."

PickAR

PickAR
Wenqi Xian
Computer Science
Beijing, China
Sarthak Srinivas
Computer Science
Bangalore, India
Cheng Hann Gan
Computer Science
Wheaton, Illinois
PickAR is like Google Maps for warehouses – we use Augmented Reality technology to help businesses find and pick your orders in warehouses.

"Winning the InVenture Prize would help us realize our vision of spreading the benefits of Augmented Reality technology to businesses and consumers around the world."

Judges

David Frakes
David H. Frakes received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering, two M.S. degrees (electrical engineering and mechanical engineering), and his Ph.D. degree in bioengineering, all from the Georgia Institute of Technology.  In 2008 he joined the faculty at Arizona State University (ASU) where he is the Fulton Entrepreneurial Professor and a jointly appointed associate professor in the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering and the School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering. He received the 2009 ASU Centennial Professor of the Year Award, the 2012 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the 2014 Innovator of the Year Award in the state of Arizona, and the 2014 World Technology Network Award in Health and Medicine. His general research interests include computer vision, medical devices, and fluid dynamics.  Dr. Frakes’ work is currently funded by Google, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and Mayo Clinic, among others.  Dr. Frakes is also currently serving as a Program Leader in the Advanced Technologies and Projects group at Google.

Wendi Sturgis

Partha Unnava
Partha Unnava was born and raised in Columbus, OH. After graduating from Dublin Coffman High School, he attended Georgia Tech to study biomedical engineering. During college, he broke his ankle and spent six weeks on crutches, leading him to found BWHealth to create better products in the most overlooked areas of sports medicine, specifically with bracing and medical equipment. BWHealth is extremely patient focused in their design, and is able to maintain this focus by emphasizing direct-to-consumer sales channels.  Since founding the company in May 2013, Partha has been invited to the White House to present to President Obama, been named on the 2015 Forbes 30 Under 30 and selected as a Kairos Fellow, been featured on CNN and Inc., and received numerous entrepreneurship awards. He is also well known as a public speaker, having spoken at dozens of conferences and events, where he shares his story, while educating audiences on fundraising, product development, and business strategy and mindsets. With a passion for fashion and culture, Partha has also been featured in several fashion magazines, including Elle Magazine and Jezebel, as well as in several runway shows, and has recently been selected as an influencer to represent the city of Atlanta by the Atlanta Metro Chamber of Commerce. He spends his free time listening to hip hop music and playing basketball and club-level ultimate frisbee.

Hosts

Mengwasser outside.
Ashley Mengwasser

Atlanta’s Ashley Mengwasser is a six-time Emmy-winning lifestyle host, writer, and producer. Her decade-long career is proof that millennials make great television! Georgia Public Broadcasting audiences know her best as the quirky, daredevil co-host on Georgia Traveler. Ashley hosts a variety of entertainment content, from DIY to doggies! In 2018, she was handpicked to host Lowe’s Home Improvement’s explosive YouTube contest “DIY-No-Mite.” Then, she packed a duffel bag full of treats to film the top-syndicated pet travel special Pets Welcome Here (NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, The CW). With her adventuresome basset hound Rosie “co-hosting,” the pair explored pet-friendly vacation destinations in the Eastern U.S. This former high-school Valedictorian has a deep appreciation for media that educates. This is Ashley’s fourth year co-hosting the Georgia Tech InVenture Prize and ACC InVenture Prize. She also enjoys working behind the camera. In 2015-2016, she traveled to China to write, co-direct, and EP the cultural documentary Chinese Tea: Elixir of the Orient. The program swept six Emmys in 2017, and Ashley won a solo Emmy in the writing category. Ashley acquired her passion for people and telling their stories during undergrad at Agnes Scott College. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude in 2009 and holds a B.A. in English Literature. When they are not brainstorming invention ideas (dog translator?), Ashley and Rosie enjoy long walks, naps, and a shared bowl of spaghetti.

Headshot
Faith Salie

Faith Salie is an Emmy-winning contributor to CBS Sunday Morning and a regular on NPR’s Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me!  She’s also host of the new podcast “Real Good.” She’ll debut Off-Broadway later this year in her solo show, Approval Junkie, based on her memoir of the same name. She's a storyteller for The Moth with her story viewed over 2 million times and included in the New York Times bestseller Occasional Magic.  Faith’s hosted five seasons of the PBS show Science Goes to the Movies, but perhaps her biggest science cred was her role on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which got her beamed up and landed her on a trading card worth hundreds of cents. Faith grew up in Atlanta and is a Rhodes scholar who graduated from Harvard, aka the GA Tech of the North. She lives in New York City, where she continues to say “y’all" and often bakes Coca-Cola cake.