News 2022: Three student teams win cash prizes at the Corsair Idea Challenge

Finalists will also receive a free six-month membership to the Co-Creative Center in downtown New Bedford

On Thursday, December 1, three UMass Dartmouth student teams were awarded cash prizes for winning the top three places in the Corsair Idea Challenge. Finalists also received a free six-month membership to the Co-Creative Center in downtown New Bedford. Students had to present their idea for a service or product to three judges and a live audience in less than five minutes in CCB 149.

The event, founded by Jacob Miller (CAS ‘16 and current UMass Law student) and the Student Run Business Association in 2014, promotes innovative ideas across campus, and was open to all UMassD students regardless of major. The Corsair Idea Challenge ran annually from 2014 until complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. In its first year back, the event drew 30 student entries, which judges narrowed down to four finalists.

"We’re really happy to bring the Idea Challenge back to UMassD this year," said event organizer and Assistant Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, Griffin Cottle. "All four of the finalists had great ideas and did a terrific job presenting. The goal now is to increase the number of contestants we have from across campus. We had a few submissions from students in the College of Arts & Sciences, Visual & Performing Arts, and Engineering (including the winner), but I know there’s more out there."

First Place

Mechanical engineering majors Christina Hart, Ethan Osley, Damian Guilbe Boscana, and Shawn Marcoux took home the first-place $500 prize for their design to build an underwater holographic imaging system for marine microplastics detection. This is also the group’s capstone project, sponsored by Assistant Professor Hangjian Ling.

"This shows how important this project is to the environment, and really squashed any doubts we’ve had about growing it to a large-scale," said project leader, Christina Hart.

"The $500 will be used to cover extra tests our capstone budget won’t cover, such as a tank to test our device in," Osley added.

Marcoux explained that there are projects in place to remove full bottles and cans from our oceans, but that microscopic particles we ingest are often overlooked.

"The end-goal of this project is to reduce the number of plastics in the ocean to help the environment," he said.

"It’s really exciting, and makes us feel really accomplished," Guilbe Boscana said. "We’ve reached our main goal."

"Congratulations to all four of the finalists. What they did wasn’t easy. It’s one thing to come up with an innovative idea (that’s hard enough), but another to actually build it out and present it to a panel of judges in a room full of people. They did a great job."

Second Place

Charlton College of Business students Matt Bilancieri, Jack Corley, and Nick Hatch claimed the second-place, $300 prize for their startup company, Full-Time. Full-Time aims to modernize temp agency labor, allowing potential employees to sign up for shifts on their schedule the same way drivers take shifts at Uber or Doordash.

The group believes such a work schedule is perfect for the unpredictable lifestyle of being a college student and can help aid short staffing issues at small businesses throughout the SouthCoast and beyond. 

Third Place

Charlton College of Business graduate students Joshua Keith and Jeevan Teja Araveti came in third place, winning a $200 prize for their startup company, Envision. Envision aims to build tiered levels of mixed reality goggles for business-to-business sales, taking a leap beyond the current direct-to-consumer market for virtual reality headsets.

"A big congratulations to all four of the finalists. What they did wasn’t easy," said Cottle. "It’s one thing to come up with an innovative idea (that’s hard enough), but another to actually build it out and present it to a panel of judges in a room full of people. They did a great job."

Judges for the event were Samia Walker, Executive Director of EforAll (Entrepreneurship for All) SouthCoast, Dena Haden (CVPA ‘04), Founder and Director of the Co-Creative Center, and Tanya Lobo, Founder and Executive Director of T.R.U.E. Diversity.

The event was made possible thanks to individual donations from Peter de Silva, Maria Furman and Jacob Miller, and sponsorships from the Co-Creative Center in downtown New Bedford.