Students compete in Big 12 business
Oklahoman, The (Oklahoma City, OK)
March 9, 2007
Author: Jim Stafford; Business Writer

There is more Big 12 competition this weekend than basketball in downtown Oklahoma City.

While Big 12 teams hoop it up in the Ford Center and the Cox Convention Center, a group of students representing Big 12 universities will be competing in a business plan competition a couple of blocks away.

Ten teams in three divisions will be pitching their business plans built around university technology to judges today at the Big 12 New Venture Championship at the downtown library, said Ron Kessler, co-founder of the Big 12 Center for Economic Development, Innovation and Commercialization. Competition begins at 9 a.m.

"It's students from Big 12 universities that are putting a business plan around university technology," Kessler said. "It's part of the effort by the Big 12 (Center for Economic Development, Innovation and Commercialization) which my partner, Pike Powers, and I started a couple years ago, to help the universities with getting their technology into commercializable form. This is just one process to do that."

The competition and a related New Venture Showcase are sponsored by the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce.

Representing state universities will be AthleTech from Oklahoma State University, and Sol Inc. from the University of Oklahoma.

Athletech proposed to manufacture, market and distribute an equine salt supplement that does not taste like salt. The product solves the problem of salt deficiency in athletic horses by making the horse enjoy eating the supplement. OSU team members are Matt Baugher, Jing Li, Sean Wyatt and Brad Fair. Faculty adviser is Stu Preston.

Sol Inc. proposes to provide systems that manage solar energy and daylighting. SOL's initial system is the patented horizontal opening solar solution, which is a skylight shading system that addresses energy conservation and daylighting for retailers and government offices. Team members are Weina Jiang, Michael Filosa, Jessi Bramlett and Kaiki Yokochi. Faculty adviser is James Patterson.

Other Big 12 universities represented in the competition are Colorado, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas (two teams), Texas A&M and Texas Tech.

Each team will have 45 minutes to make their presentation before a panel of judges, who will select three finalists for a second round on Saturday. The winners will be announced during Sunday's final round of the Big 12 Basketball Tournament.

The champion will receive a cash prize and an invitation to compete in the Global MOOT CORP Competition May 2-5 in Austin, Texas. In last year's competition, ZigBeef from the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa finished second.

Copyright 2007, The Oklahoma Publishing Company

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