Vanderbilt University student wins SEC Pitch Competition
The annual event was hosted by the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Vanderbilt University student Sudiksha Singhal captured first place and the $10,000 cash prize in the annual Southeastern Conference Student Pitch Competition held last Thursday at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The event, hosted by the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Haslam College of Business, featured two preliminary rounds of competition before the finale involving three students from Auburn University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Vanderbilt.
Singhal pitched Brace Cap LLC, a start-up that is focused on the 75 percent of orthodontic patients who get severe injuries due to the braces they wear on their teeth. She’s the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the start-up that has been part of the programming offered at The Wond’ry at Vanderbilt. Singhal says the idea stemmed from years of painful experiences as an orthodontic patient.
Second place went to Trinity Tube, a next-generation solution for neonatal vital sign monitoring. It was pitched by Iman Salafian, one of its Co-Founders and CEO. He explained that traditional neonatal monitoring involves 10 to 20 sensors that presents logistical challenges for nurses. Trinity Tube is a multifunctional feeding tube that also incorporates everything needed for monitoring in one device.
Third place went to Auburn’s Thomas Lester for his creation of a self-heating beverage container. It is designed to heat coffee, tea or other beverages within 90 seconds.
Judges for the final competition were:
- Carol Seamons, a long-time banker and part of the advisory team at the UT Spark Cleantech Accelerator;
- Mike Otworth, Executive Chair of Innventure; and
- Mike Brown, a UTK alumnus and executive in the oil and gas industry in Houston, TX.
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