Winning Company, Based on Rice University Technology, Headed by Rice Engineering and Business Grad Students
The Rice University business plan team, Indirect Imaging, won first place in the mai Bangkok Business Challenge, hosted by the Sasin Business School at Chulalongkorn University, Feb. 25-27. The team also won "Best Presentation" in their competitive group. Sixteen teams from around the world were invited to present at the competition and the top six presented in the final round. Rice was the only school from the United States that was selected to present at the competition; the other semi-finalist teams came from Europe, Australia, and Asia.
"This is huge for us," said Robert Kester, chief operating officer of Indirect Imaging. "I think this experience validated our technology as well as our business plan moving forward. We are really excited about the opportunities this opens up for us."
Indirect Imaging has invented a revolutionary new camera which is capable of determining the chemical composition of an area or subject within a digital photograph, instantly. These instant images can identify a myriad of chemical, organic, biological and mechanical conditions. The applications are found in food growing, harvesting and testing as well as surveillance and geological imaging. Biological applications for blood and dermal conditions are also in the near term view.
The business plan is based on a Rice University technology developed out of Dr. Tomasz Tkaczyk's lab. Robert Kester, a bioengineering Ph.D. student at the Brown School of Engineering working with Tkaczyk is the company COO, and Jones Graduate School of Business MBA student Allison Lami will serve as CEO. Lami brought on three additional MBA students: Tadzia GrandPré, Frances Parker and Anne Robin to compete in the competition.
"This is a great example of what students from the School of Engineering and the Jones School can accomplish when they work together and call on the expertise of the Rice Alliance," said Sallie Keller, dean of the Brown School of Engineering. "We are working toward more of these collaborations in the future and I'm sure they will result, not only in competition success for our students, but in innovations that fuel new, successful businesses."
Indirect Imaging won $10,000 in cash at the Thailand competition to further their business. Lami and Kester are currently finalizing the agreement with Rice University Office of Technology Transfer to license the technology. They hope to develop it to be used in a variety of applications.
The team was mentored over the past year by Tom Kraft, formerly Director of Client Services at the Houston Technology Center (HTC). The team leader, Allison Lami, has been serving as an HTC intern and their company, Indirect Imaging, is now a candidate company of the HTC. Dennis Murphree, instructor of the Jones School creative entrepreneurship class and one of the founders of the Rice Business Plan Competition, also helped coach the team along with his class co-instructor Brain Hoogendam. The team was supported by the Jones Partners, corporate supporters of the Jones School, with aid for travel expenses to the Thailand competition.
"I believe this is the first time a Rice University team has won first place in a major business plan competition," said Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, organizers and hosts of the Rice Business Plan Competition. "Indirect Imaging will represent Rice at the Rice Business Plan Competition in April. Prior to that, they have been selected to compete in the WBT University Technology Commercialization Competition as well as the Venture Challenge at San Diego State University. Both of these competitions will help them prepare for the Rice Business Plan Competition, which is the world's richest and largest competition with more than $800,000 in cash and prizes."
The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship
The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship (Rice Alliance) is Rice University's nationally-recognized initiative devoted to the support of technology commercialization, entrepreneurship education, and the launch of technology companies. It was formed as a strategic alliance of three schools: the George R. Brown School of Engineering, the Wiess School of Natural Sciences and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business.
Since inception, the Rice Alliance has assisted in the launch of more than 250 start-ups which have raised more than half a billion dollars in early-stage capital. More than 750 companies have presented at the 115+ programs hosted by the Rice Alliance.
Recent recognition:
- 2009 #5 U.S. Graduate Entrepreneurship Program – Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine
- 2009 Outstanding Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership & Excellence in Specialty Entrepreneurship Education - GCEC
- 2009 Outstanding Specialty Entrepreneurship Program – USASBE
- 2009 Marketer of the Year – American Marketing Association
- 2008 Houston's Greatest Economic Development Ally – Greater Houston Partnership
- 2007 Outstanding Enterprise Creation Award – GCEC
For more information about the Rice Alliance, visit www.alliance.rice.edu.
Contacts:
Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship
Mary Lynn
Fernau, 713-348-5374
mlfernau@rice.edu
