Two teams of Texas ECE students who participated in the Startup track of the Texas ECE Capstone Design Competition were recognized with awards at The Selig Entrepreneurship Prize Competition held by the Innovation Center in the Cockrell School of Engineering at UT Austin.

The “Fend” team won second place and were awarded a cash prize of $3000.00 Their product idea is security system for backpacks that includes a smart phone app that tracks the location of attempted thefts. The team members are: Jing-Jing Zhang, Jasmin Rajan, Vidita Dixit, Sonia Taneja, Katelyn Ge and Kirtana Moorthy.

Fend team pictured with Louise Epstein, Managing Director of the Cockrell Schol Innovation Center

The “Aurora” team won third place and were awarded a cash prize of $2000.00. Their product is a guitar teaching tool using LEDs to show correct placement of your fingers on the frets. The team members are: Tarang Khandpur, Don Ton, Domino Weir, Ethan Cranmer and Garrett Custer.

Aurora team pictured with Louise Epstein, Managing Director of the Cockrell Schol Innovation Center

The Selig Entrepreneurship Prize competition is held in both the Fall and Spring semesters and augments the senior design project experience for engineering students by focusing on commercializing their technology. The competition and the preparation for it gives undergraduates the opportunity to take their senior project to the next level and advance their entrepreneurial experience. All senior engineering student teams are eligible.

This competition is made possible by the Marvin and Ellie Selig Excellence Fund in Entrepreneurial Studies.

Led by Texas ECE professor Dr. Bob Metcalfe, the Innovation Center is "a group of experienced entrepreneurs dedicated to helping professors and students transform their ideas and discoveries into innovations that will impact the world and change lives."

Both teams were supervised during the work on their Capstone projects by Prof. Mark McDermott.