A team of app builders at NCSU took home the $1,000 top prize at the annual Entrepalooza on Thursday night.
“#GradPack students Rakesh Sukumar & Jigar Sharda won the #NCStateEntrepalooza Minute to Pitch It tonight!” reads the tweet from the Entrepalooza Twitter feed.
North Carolina State University and IBM hosted the annual “Entrepalooza,” an entrepreneurship and innovation festival at the Oval on Centennial Campus. The event drew a crowd estimated at around 800 people.
(Read more, see photos at: https://twitter.com/hashtag/NCStateEntrepalooza?src=hash )
IBM recently announced the opening of the IBM Education Collaboration Center on Centennial Campus, which will be a focal point for collaborations of joint projects between IBM experts, faculty and students using the company’s complete portfolio of products and services.
NCSU students showcased their ideas during the “Minute To Pitch It” competition, in which participants had 60 seconds to convince the audience their idea is worthy of an investment.
Last year’s winner, Oliver Walsh, a senior in electrical engineering, used prize money to launch his app startup Sharefish, which now has approximately 1,000 downloads.
“We’re always amazed at how students apply our cloud technologies as they embrace an entrepreneurial attitude in driving their ideas forward. Through partnerships such as IBM@edu, we’re eager to see what Built on Cloud apps are presented at this year’s Entrepalooza,” said Andy Rindos, WW and NA director for IBM Centers for Advanced Studies, ahead of the event.
The festival featured interactive demonstrations and hands-on activities from numerous NCSU entrepreneurship programs and local innovation partners, such as the NC State Libraries, HQ Raleigh and Offline, a local startup whose app gives users instant access to the best events and experiences happening in their city.
Additional information about Entrepalooza is available at ei.ncsu.edu/entrepalooza.
