A handful of Penn students are getting the chance to turn "their big idea" into a reality and a profit as part of the Weiss Tech House's second annual PennVention contest.
Ten teams competed last Friday for prizes totaling more than $50,000 and including services like legal consultation and assistance with getting their products ready for sale.
The contest's $5,000 grand prize went to a product called MuscleMorph, a new type of motor that simulates the motion of human muscles.
Other prize-winners included the Octave Swing Trainer, a golf-club attachment that provides visual and audio feedback on the golfer's swing, and VuShare, a product that allows people to watch two different channels at the same time on the same television.
The contest's judges -- which included the creator of shopping Web site Half.com and a representative from QVC Inc., a home shopping television channel -- watched inventors' presentations before making their decisions.
MuscleMorph's main designer, Rodrigo Alvarez, is a Bioengineering doctoral student at Penn. Born and raised in Mexico, he has always been interested in robotic design and hopes to one day succeed in creating an artificial human being.
He worked with Wharton MBA students Rahul Kothari and Howard Katzenberg, who are now working on finding a market for MuscleMorph. They say they will likely try to sell it in the robotics and prosthetics industry.
Engineering and Wharton senior Kunal Bahl also took home one of the competition's most prestigious prizes.
Bahl is the winner of the $2,500 QVC Consumer Innovation Prize for his pre-measured dissolvable packets of ultra-concentrated laundry detergent, called Dropps.
Bahl will also get an hour to pitch his project to a representative from QVC who determines which products make it on the air.
But Bahl has already taken steps to sell his product. He has established a Web site where consumers can buy boxes of 20, 60 or 240 of the two-inch detergent packs, which dissolve in the washing machine, Bahl says.
Bahl said he wasn't used to doing laundry before coming to Penn, and got frustrated with the massive bottles of detergent which he used to clean his clothes.
Bahl says he uses his days to work on marketing Dropps, so he takes all his classes at night.
Like all of the competitors in the PennVention contest, Bahl has been working on his product since the beginning of the school year.
An "inspiration round" in early November gave potential contestants a chance to get feedback on their preliminary ideas from business leaders recruited by the Weiss Tech House.
Next was the "achievement round" in early February, when 10 finalists were chosen and got $850 each to develop a prototype of their products.
This contest was funded by both the Weiss Tech House and corporate sponsors. Penn students served on the organizing committee for the competition and helped to orchestrate each round.
The Tech House, located in Levine Hall near 33th and Walnut streets, works to encourage students to innovate with technology.
Engineering and Wharton sophomore Elisa Lau, who helped pair potential contestants with corporate mentors, felt that their year's effort had paid off.
"The judges, mentors and other industry leaders seemed really impressed with the quality of inventions," she said. "Some of [them] are really revolutionary in terms of one day helping society."
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
DonatePlease note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.