Seizure stopper, bacteria detector take top honors

University of Maryland recognizes top marketing ideas in $50K Business Plan Competition

Geared toward promoting the marketing of new ideas and university-created technologies, the contest awards prizes ranging from $2,000 to $10,000 to participants with the best concept plans. Each of the top three teams won $10,000.

Cerene Biomedics, the Duke team, proposed a plan for distributing a microchip that is implanted on certain surface areas of the brain and cools them during an epileptic seizure, thus stopping the seizure. The team predicts the device could tap into a $6 billion market, which includes about 300,000 patients who do not respond to conventional treatment. Cerene — which represents the merger of the term ‘‘serene,” for peaceful, and cerebrum, a part of the brain — received first place in the young alumni category.

Duke graduate student Heidi Koschwanez said the technology was actually intended for use on electronic equipment, but the creator, NexTreme, approached the group in hopes of discovering medical uses.

Hillman students were involved in creating the Liquid Desiccant Waterfall, which won in the undergraduate category. The device, which its creators say is more energy-efficient than an air conditioner, uses salt to pull moisture from air inside a house and then releases it outside — all while resembling a decorative waterfall. The dehumidifier is part of the university’s Leaf House project, which won first place nationally and second place internationally in the International Solar Decathlon in October.

The group that created the dehumidifier, LDTech, worked on the project as part of its studies in the Hillman Entrepreneurs Program. The program operates through the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute and provides disadvantaged students with full scholarships to the community college and partial scholarships to the university in hopes of fostering the next generation of technology entrepreneurs. Mtech, which has had a $17 billion impact on Maryland economy since its founding in 1983, is a unit of the A. James Clark School of Engineering.

Through Mtech and the Hillman program, people in the business community partner with the university to coach young entrepreneurs, teaching them to build business plans that often focus on innovation within the university, said Dean Chang, director of Mtech Ventures.

Intelligent Baby University was another Hillman team to make it to the competition finals, receiving third place and $2,000 for its strategy for a child-care facility that targeted college staff and students.

‘‘They identified a market need and responded to it,” said Karen S. Thornston, director of the Hillman program. ‘‘They’re going to go somewhere with their company.”

University bioengineering professor Peter Kofinas helped his graduate student with the plan that took first place in the faculty and graduate-student level. Their invention uses polymer coatings inside packages to measure hazardous bacteria levels around food and register these through a variety of color changes. Kofinas said his invention differs from others by detecting the bacteria-signifying molecules rather than the bacteria itself.

His other project, which took third place in the division, was ViruSense, which uses a polymer to make imprints of viruses in the blood and detect an infection within 30 minutes. Although the method has been used on only non-harmful viruses, Kofinas said he hopes it can be used to detect HIV, which causes AIDS.

Judges for the competition were Henry Ahn of the Maryland Technology Development Corp.; Warren Citrin of Gloto Corp.; Ray Dizon of the Maryland Venture Fund; Wei-Wu He of Emerging Technology Partners; Mark Kass of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo; and Karl Renner of Fish & Richardson PC.