A team of business and engineering students won second place and a $5,000 cash prize in the fifth annual State of Florida Healthcare Innovation Pitch Competition for an invention they developed in FGCU’s hybrid entrepreneurial course.
Their Illumitize Hand Sanitizing System is a safety-compliance mechanism for hospitals and other healthcare facilities that encourages workers and visitors to sanitize their hands before touching patients, thereby reducing the likelihood of infection. The project also took top honors last December in FGCU’s annual Eagle Biz Awards and will compete in the Florida Venture Forum’s Statewide Business Plan Competition on May 17.
FGCU engineering students Brian Bradley and Allie Sundermeier pitched their team’s innovative idea and presented a working prototype at the competition April 6 at the University of South Florida. Other universities competing were University of Florida, University of Central Florida, Rollins College, Nova Southeastern, University of Miami and the Florida Institute of Technology and USF. FGCU’s team competed against doctoral, master’s and medical students.
“What makes this so cool is the context of who we were competing against,” says Professor of Management Sandra Kauanui, director of the FGCU Institute for Entrepreneurship. “We were the only undergraduate team competing against top schools in the state and higher levels of education. It says something about us and about having a mix of engineering and business students working together — that doesn’t happen at a lot of schools.”
Other members of the Illumitize team are David Fleck and Joseph Mukuri from the U.A. Whitaker College of Engineering and Nicholas Camacho, Jaquelyn Damico, Brian Perry and Dixibeth Villarraga from the Lutgert College of Business.
Florida Blue, The National Academy of Inventors and the USF Center for Entrepreneurship teamed up to promote the competition to encourage early-stage healthcare innovation and entrepreneurship in Florida.
Other pitches included: an invention that converts body heat to power medical devices; a 3D-modeling tool that helps physicians and patients in the diagnostic process; a low-cost scanner that can help fit prosthetic hands; an app that allows for faster and more accurate diagnosis or prognosis for outpatient recovery; an app that allows patients to video chat with pharmacists; an algorithm-based solution to detect the progression of eye disease; and a monitor that measures hemoglobin levels and red blood cell counts.