After starting with about 100 teams, our pool of several hundred judges have selected the top teams.

In Round 2, we have advanced 

- the top 15 student teams

- 45 honorable mention student teams (who can participate in Round 2 as well)

- the top 20 Open Competition (non-student) teams. 

Thanks to our many competitors and judges for participating in Round 1!

For Round 2, the teams are creating Indiegogo campaign videos, a plan and/or pitch deck, and will be judged by the judging pool again.

Come back on January 18th, to see all of the videos and Indiegogo campaigns!

Student Competition: Top 15 Teams from Round 1

• Kasper Kubica, Trinity, 2017, kasper@clutchlotion.com
• David Spratte, Trinity, 2017, david@clutchlotion.com 
• Location: Durham, NC 
• Track: Other Products & Services

DropBuy - DropBuy seeks to automate real estate property showings by developing a collaborative calendar for buyers, sellers, and their agents. 

• Team: Sachi Takahashi-Rial, Sanford School of Public Policy, 2015, st207@duke.edu
• George Carollo- non-Duke
• Brian Carrigan- non-Duke
• Joe Contini- non-Duke 
• Location: Durham, NC 
• Track: Internet, IT & Media

Kanabis - Launching a brand of footwear in India for young women (15-35 age group). The idea is to create a very fun, cool, casual wear for college goers/young professionals. Product offering will be expanded to other apparel such as belts, bags and more. All our products are 100pc vegetarian (no animal product used in any form or shape) and ethically made. The core material used will be canvas, which was originally made from 'Cannabis' - the root word for Kanabis. 

• Team Leader: Devika Srimal, devika.srimal@duke.edu (Fuqua - EMBA (CC, GEMBA, WEMBA) 2016) 
• Anshul Tyagi, London College of Fashion, May 2013, anshultyagi.nift@gmail.com
• Akshay Srimal, Harvard Business School, May 2011, akshay.srimal@gmail.com 
• Location: New-Delhi
• Track: Other Products & Services

Kedge Conservation - Kedge builds business capacity while growing conservation literacy among rural entrepreneurs in the developing world through a combination of simple, accessible technology and on-the-ground education events. 

Our program encourages entrepreneurship, teaches basic business skills, promotes positive health care, and imparts an ethic of sustainability. 

• Team Leader: Alexandra Sutton, lexasutton@gmail.com (Nicholas School of the Environment 2016) 
• Team: Alexandra E. Sutton, Nicholas School of the Environment (PhD '16) -- alexa@kedgeconservation.com
• Joseph R. Lemeris, Jr., Nicholas School of the Environment (MEM '13) -- joe.lemeris@kedgeconservation.com
• Kelly Garvy, Nicholas School of the Environment (MEM '16) -- kelly.garvy@gmail.com
• Courtney Skuce, [External to Duke], courtney@kedgeconservation.com
• Emily Lapayowker, [External to Duke], emily@kedgeconservation.com 
• Location: Durham, NC 
• Track: Social Enterprises

Model Earth, Inc. - Model Earth, Inc. (MEI) serves land owners, investors, and water consumers who seek to create additional value through ecosystem enhancement.  We use sophisticated, validated modeling software to recommend management changes on specific tracts of land which will yield additional water values through ecosystem enhancement.  In parallel, we work with landowners, investors, and state governments to offer and enable cost-effective concession financing for implementation of ecosystem enhancement, based on marginal increases in water rates. 

• Team Leader: Mark Ziman, mark.ziman@duke.edu (Nicholas School of the Environment 2016) 
• Team: Belton Copp VI, Nicholas School of the Environment and Kenan-Flagler Business School, 2016, belton.copp@duke.edu
• Danny Suits, Fuqua School of Business and Nicholas School of the Environment, 2017, danny.suits@duke.edu
• Dr. Jesko Von Windheim, Professor at Nicholas School of the Environment, jesko.vonwindheim@duke.edu
• Dr. Mukesh Kumar, Professor at Nicholas School of the Environment, mukesh.kumar@duke.edu 
• Location: Durham, NC 
• Track: Healthcare & Life Sciences

naNO Limit Therapeutics - With over 14 years of combined scientific research experience in areas ranging from nanochemistry to radiation oncology; and degrees in medicine, neuroscience, biochemistry, microbiology, engineering, and business – the naNO LIMIT Therapeutics team is well poised to tackle the challenges presented in this proposal. Our small size makes us nimble and responsive while our experience gives us the ability to execute and exceed expectations.  

naNO LIMIT is dedicated to improving the lives of those who suffer from debilitating neurological diseases by increasing the ability of drugs to cross the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB). Our patented nanoparticle, the Carbon Dot, will enable pharmaceutical companies to encapsulate their drugs in a way which dramatically improves drug-localization to the brain. This allows for a reduction in overall dose administration to the patient, leading to reduced toxicity risk and side-effects while improving therapeutic index and cost-efficacy. Considering the rapid growth of the senior population (and subsequent increase in neurological disease) and ever increasing scarcity of healthcare dollars, we believe that our novel technology is an essential part of the overall solution to the healthcare crisis around the world. 

• Team Leader: Afreen Allam, afreen.allam@gmail.com (Fuqua - CCMBA 2016) 
• Sameer K. Berry, Fuqua School of Business - MBA, 2016 sameer.berry@duke.edu
• Mark Yanik, Fuqua School of Business - MBA, 2016 mark.yanik@duke.edu 
• Location: Raleigh, NC
• Track: Healthcare & Life Sciences

PowerClenz - This product helps clean your eye contacts quickly by combining the powerful cleaning ability of hydrogen peroxide and the power of agitation. This reduces the time needed for completion from 6 hours to 1 hour and greatly enhances the desirability of the hydrogen peroxide based cleaning systems. 

• Team Leader: Andrew Mix, andrew.mix@duke.edu (Fuqua - MMS 2015) 
• Location: Durham, NC 
• Track: Healthcare & Life Sciences

SafeHigh - One of the biggest barriers to marijuana legalization is the inability to determine whether or not a driver is high. Marijuana is known to impair coordination, and accidents with drivers under the influence of marijuana are on the rise. States where marijuana is legal consider a blood level of 2ng of THC per mL of blood as under the influence, but blood tests such as these require a warrant, which is difficult or impossible to obtain.  

Although marijuana legalization offers a number of advantages for governments at the local, state, and national levels, the lack of a non-invasive technique to determine whether a driver is high leaves citizens fearful of total legalization. As marijuana use increases worldwide, there is a significant need for a non-invasive way to determine whether or not a driver is high.

SafeHigh aims to be the “breathalyzer” for marijuana use. Data taken from drivers’ brainwaves, mental state, and eye appearance are used to determine the intensity of their high. Analysis of eye appearance can be accomplished using the SafeHigh smartphone app, meaning consumers can test themselves before driving. Additionally, analysis of brainwaves can be accomplished using mobile EEG hardware, which may be appropriate for a law enforcement agency in addition to the eye-analysis technique. This interdisciplinary approach allows for greater accuracy than either technique alone, and permits diagnosis of a user’s high with minimal invasiveness and risk to the subject. 

• Team Leader: Justin Carrao, justin.carrao@duke.edu (Pratt 2016) 
• Kevin Mauro, Pratt, 2016, kevin.mauro@duke.edu 
• Location: Ventura, CA 
• Track: Other Products & Services

Shagun - The business idea is inspired by a common tradition in India called Shagun. Shagun means auspicious in Hindi and involves an exchange of gifts quite often in the form of money in the one rupee denomination, for example 101 rupees, 1001 rupees, etc. The cultural implication of the one rupee denomination signifies that the gift is usually from an older person showing his support for the younger family member and that the money be used for Shagun, i.e. good or auspicious times. However, the problem is that the money is usually not put towards its intended use and either spent frivolously or put into a safe where it eventually gets used for daily expenses. These Shagun gifts are exchanged during most Indian cultural events throughout the year like festivals, weddings, birthdays, family visits, etc. and can contribute to important personal goals like a guitar lessons, a first bicycle, or even education. There are huge social costs associated for forgoing these opportunities, especially for a young and growing population of India, and our vision is to reduce this opportunity cost by unlocking the utility and value of Shagun gifts. By doing so, we are aiming to help millions of Indian kids who come from low to middle income households fulfil personal development needs. 

The high-level concept for this venture is a “kick-starter” or crowd fund personalized for a young individual’s aspirations or goals, like education or a music lesson. The platform will allow the kid to promote their goal to their family members or peers, connect to the right resources where they can purchase the product or service, and then notify the sponsoring family member when the goal has been achieved. The solution will also connect to resources (paid or free) that are required for the young ones to pursue their goals and be successful. Resources integrated to this platform might include educational institutions, retailers for products, service provider, consulting teams, or curated online content. 

• Team: Sangeetha Mohan, Fuqua Weekend Executive, 2014, sangeetha.mohan@fuqua.duke.edu
• Nisarg Amin, Fuqua Cross Continent MBA, 2014, nisarg.amin@fuqua.duke.edu 
• Location: New York, NY 
• Track: Internet, IT & Media

SMSmart - By the end of 2014, there will be more smartphone users in India than there are total people in the United States.  However, data plans in India are limited and seventy-six percent of Indian smartphone users expressed a willingness to pay more for better mobile data coverage.  A Nokia Solutions Executive in India estimated that only 30-40 percent of India has access to 3G coverage.  On the other hand, SMS coverage in India is virtually ubiquitous in metropolitan areas.  What if there was a way to access all of the web with SMS? 

SMSmart is an Android application that allows you to use popular applications such as Gmail, Facebook and Google Maps without using any data.  In SMSmart, every user action is mapped to a structured text message. For example, getting directions via Google Maps is mapped to a structured text message that is sent by SMSmart to our servers.  The servers then parse the message and return the appropriate data as a response text message. Our application listens for these messages and renders the appropriate user interface.   

View a demo of SMSmart in action here:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/0ruddnpnqpzdd8j/smsmartdemo.mp4?dl=0. 

• Team Leader: Alan Ni, amn22@duke.edu (Trinity 2015) 
• Team: Jay Wang, Trinity School of Arts and Sciences, Class of 2015, jay.wang@duke.edu
• Ben Schwab, Trinity School of Arts and Sciences, Class of 2015, benjamin.schwab@duke.edu
• Alan Ni, Trinity School of Arts and Sciences, Class of 2015, amn22@duke.edu 
• Location: Columbia, MO 
• Track: Internet, IT & Media

StrictaSomnus-Screen Sleep Apnea - Sleep apnea is a health condition describing cessation of breath during sleeping. There are an estimated 22 million people in the United States who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, and of those 80% are undiagnosed. Sleep apnea can be a dangerous condition which, if left untreated, causes exhaustion, daytime drowsiness, high blood pressure, and can lead to obesity, diabetes, depression, heart failure, stroke, and many more health risks. 

The path to being diagnosed with sleep apnea is long, tedious, expensive, and stressful. The current method of diagnosis, a polysomnograph, typically consists of an overnight test with a patient connected to more than 20 leads which can cost around $2000.

We plan to provide immediate, easy-to-use, reliable, and safe screening device for home use. This device will provide first step to diagnosing someone with sleep apnea with high reliability and send them on a direct path toward treatment. 

• Team: Rajesh Verma, Fuqua School of Business, WEMBA, 2014, verma05w@duke.edu
• Joe Hardin, Biomedical Engineering NCSU, jwhardin@ncsu.edu 
• Location: Mooresville, NC 
• Track: Healthcare & Life Sciences

TEO Systems Inc - Flow cytometers are tools used by life science professionals to obtain quantitative information from biological cells using light signals at a rate of thousands of cells per second.  Flow cytometry use for biology research, drug development, and the clinical diagnosis of lymphoma and other blood cancers has grown considerably over the past two decades, comprising a $3.5 Billion market in 2013 with 15% CAGR.  

TEO Systems Inc. has developed an innovative flow cytometry technology that generates detailed information on cell morphology at a throughput rate much higher than existing microscopy products that specialize in morphology measurement while significantly reducing operational costs through the use of a reagent-free cytometry method.  The technology represents an entirely new way of performing morphology-based cell analysis that will appeal to all flow cytometry end users in government and academic research centers, hospitals, and the life sciences industry and has the potential to disrupt the entire $3.5 Billion flow cytometry market. 

• Team Leader: Benjamin Hu, byh3@duke.edu (Fuqua - Daytime MBA 2016) 
• Dr. Xin-Hua Hu, East Carolina University, hux@ecu.edu 
• Location: Durham, NC 
• Track: Healthcare & Life Sciences

Undercover Colors - Undercover Colors is a fashion-centric company that is developing a protective product for women that helps identify if a drink has been spiked with date rape drugs. 

• Team: Ankesh Madan, Pratt, 2019, ankesh.madan@duke.edu
• Tasso von Windheim, Pratt, 2019, tav9@duke.edu 
• Location: Asheboro, NC 
• Track: Other Products & Services

ViFlex LLC - We are developing simple, adjustable glasses that help overcome barriers to distributing eyeglasses in developing countries. 

• Team Leader: Nathan Brajer, nathan.brajer@duke.edu (Pratt 2018) 
• Team: Yitaek Hwang, Pratt School of Engineering, 2016, yitaek.hwang@gmail.com
• Chris Eckersley, Pratt School of Engineering, 2016, christopher.eckersley@duke.edu
• Ningrui Li, Pratt School of Engineering, 2016, ningrui.li@duke.edu
• Trey Bagley, Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, 2016, donald.bagley@duke.edu
• Sharon Kim, Pratt School of Engineering, 2016, sharon.kim@duke.edu
• Anurag Dulapalli, Pratt School of Engineering, 2016, anurag.dulapalli@gmail.com
• Lyon Chen, Pratt School of Engineering, 2016, lyon.chen@duke.edu
• Arihant Jain, Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, 2016, ari.jain37@gmail.com
• Tosin Omofoye, Pratt School of Engineering, 2016, tosinomofoye94@gmail.com 
• Location: Durham, NC 
• Track: Social Enterprises

Zylon - Nylon is an incredible material that is all around us - in clothing, toys, technology, cars, food, everywhere. Unfortunately, nylon is derived from petrochemicals.

Enter Zylon: we have a patented method for creating adipic acid, a precursor to nylon, from a glucose feedstock. This means that we can make environmentally-friendly nylon from plants. 

With Zylon, nylon can be produced from our adipic acid, which is identical to that created from petroleum, that has an inherently lower carbon footprint, is made from crop byproducts, and is renewable. 

• Team Leader: Neil Matouka, neil.matouka@duke.edu (Nicholas School of the Environment 2015) 
• Qi Zhang, Nicholas School of the Environment, 2015, q.zhang@duke.edu
• Andrew Guerra, Nicholas School of the Environment, 2015, andrew.guerra@duke.edu
• Michael Rinaldi, Nicholas School of the Environment, 2015, michael.rinaldi@duke.edu
• Daniel Schulz, Pratt School of Engineering, 2015, daniel.schulz@duke.edu
• Bill Diplas, Duke University School of Medicine, Hai Yan Molecular Oncogenomics Laboratory, 2018, bill.diplas@duke.edu 
• Location: Durham, NC 
• Track: Other Products & Services

Student Competition: Honorable Mention Teams from Round 1

ActiLivi - Our goal is to foster real connections amongst people. With all their interests and diversity, people have an infinite amount of connections they can make and we wish to assist them in the exploration and development of these connections. A friend’s list should be more than an unexciting barrage of past data, and should be opportunities for a better future. We wish to create a dynamic culture of activeness, continuous curiosity of surroundings and the expansion and growth of hobbies. 

• Team Leader: James Hsu, jh.spyder@gmail.com (Trinity 2016) 
• Team: Vivian Chung, Trinity, 2016
• Duke Kim, Trinity, 2015 
• Location: Chapel Hill, NC 
• Track: Other Products & Services

Ankoy (Sesame Crunch Bars) - I am making low calorie, gluten-free, nutritional crunchy sesame snack bars. After finding out that I'm gluten intolerant, I looked for healthy snacks that I could munch on and bake at home. The goal of my project is to not only produce a nutritional snack, but also to raise awareness of gluten-intolerance and Celiac Disease.

• Team Leader: Yuyi Li, yuyi.li@duke.edu (Trinity 2017)
  
• Team: Yuyi Li, College of Arts and Sciences, 2017, yuyi.li@duke.edu
  
• Location: Chapel Hill, NC
  
• Track: Other Products & Services

Apparel Analytics - Apparel Analytics, provides fashion trend and personal fashion preference information to apparel companies and retailers for the purpose of product placement and targeted advertising.  It is based on software developed by a team of Duke-University trained data scientists that automatically extracts and compiles fashion data from internet-based images (e.g., from Facebook or Instagram). With 1.8 billion photos uploaded to the internet every day, there are more than enough images to extract fashion trends by demographic and region.  The software can also be used for targeted advertising, by learning the apparel purchasing habits of individuals by analyzing the photos they upload to the internet, potentially in real time as they upload them.

• Team Leader: Jordan Malof, jmmalo03@gmail.com (Pratt 2015)
  
• Team: Jordan Malof, Pratt, 2015, jmmalo03@gmail.com
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Internet, IT & Media

Aspire Engineering - Self-sustaining onsite sewage treatment for developing countries.

• Team Leader: Aaron Forbis-Stokes, aaron.forbis-stokes@duke.edu (Pratt 2016)
  
• Team: Aaron Forbis-Stokes, Pratt School of Engineering – PhD Student, 2016, aaron.forbis-stokes@duke.edu
  
• Emma Smith, Trinity School of Arts and Sciences, 2016, egs14@duke.edu
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Social Enterprises

Barter - Barter is a mobile commerce social marketplace for college and university students. We aim to capitalize on the close proximity and social connectivity of campus life to provide students with a more practical, convenient, and fun buying and selling experience.

• Team Leader: Matthew Alston, mca38@duke.edu (Trinity 2017)
  
• Team: Matt Alston, Trinity, 2017, mca38@duke.edu
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Internet, IT & Media

BioMetrix - The product is a non-rigid, suspension-based arch support intended to prevent athletes from developing a dependence on conventional orthotics. Unlike conventional orthotic technology which restricts motion and weakens the foot by rigidly packing the arch from below, enhancing the foot's anatomical structure is thought to strengthen the appendage with time. We achieve this by stabilizing the calcaneus to prevent misalignment of the musculoskeletal structure of the arch, supporting the navicular keystone, and preserving the transverse arch. Our technology mimics the foot's anatomy to provide support proportional to demand via elastic support thereby encouraging natural strengthening. 

    We aim to do this by reinforcing the foot's secondary and tertiary responses to arch collapse while allowing and facilitating primary muscle activation. The prevention of these secondary responses directly protects against the cause of common foot injuries like plantar fasciitis while our dynamic, suspended support of the arch's keystone strengthens the bony structure. Coupled with a non-intrusive wearable sensor system, the user can actively monitor their pronation in-situ  llowing for direct self, and physician monitoring throughout recovery.

• Team Leader: Ivonna Dumanyan, ind3@duke.edu (Pratt 2016)
  
• Team: Brianca King, Pratt, 2014, Brianca.king@duke.edu
  
• Gabby Levac,Trinity, 2014, Gabby.levac@gmail.com
  
• Ivonna Dumanyan, Pratt,ind3@duke.edu
  
• Location: Durham N, NC
  
• Track: Other Products & Services

Canopy Scientific - Forests offset anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions by capturing and storing carbon from the atmosphere. This natural capital is recognized in regulated and voluntary carbon markets, making forest carbon projects an attractive, additional revenue stream for forest landowners and carbon project developers. Nevertheless, forest carbon is technically challenging and expensive to measure. Accuracy is important for project success. Measurement is the main source of risk and also the main cost in project development, leading project developers to turn away potential clients, both large and small. 

Canopy Scientific produces more accurate measurements of forest carbon stocks with fewer on-the-ground observations, resulting in lower analysis costs than current solutions. Our services allow carbon offset developers to implement a greater number of projects with less uncertainty and risk. Our low-cost, scientific process and sole focus on superior carbon measurement allow us to undertake projects of all sizes, including those traditionally too small and large for carbon offset developers.

• Team Leader: Aaron Berdanier, abb30@duke.edu (Nicholas School of the Environment 1900)
  
• Team: Aaron Berdanier, Nicholas School of the Environment, 2016, abb30@duke.edu; 
• Ramsey Meigs, Nicholas School of the Environment and Fuqua School of Business, 2017, ramsey.meigs@duke.edu
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Social Enterprises

CrowdCaster - CrowdCaster is a mobile app performers can use to turn their audience’s smart phones into part of the show through synchronized special effects and direct two-way communication.  However, unlike event-specific apps that tend to be discarded after the show, CrowdCaster serves as a consistent, yet flexible, platform to be used time after time at events across live entertainment venues.

• Team Leader: Bart Bradshaw, bart.bradshaw@fuqua.duke.edu (Fuqua - Daytime MBA 2015)
  
• Team: Bart Bradshaw, Fuqua School of Business, 2015, bart.bradshaw@fuqua.duke.edu
  
• Chad Tyler, Fuqua School of Business, 2016, chad.tyler@duke.edu
  
• Location: Henderson, NV
  
• Track: Internet, IT & Media

CryptoPic - CryptoPic is an application that encrypts the pictures that you send to the other parties, whether it is with email or other third party applications. It behaves as a locked suitcase, where the lock belongs to the other party that you are sending the picture to. The app acts like a carrier and nothing more, the user does all the work with one click of a button.

Remember when the pictures from a sharing app were leaked using third party apps? As we share more and more pictures with others, it is sometimes easy to forget that we may not be alone in our communications. While there are excellent apps out there for encrypting one-on-one chat and email communications, no one has focused specifically on pictures, which need to be protected as much, if not more. 

 The cryptographic algorithms that CryptoPic uses are commonly used in protecting data, and they are computationally easy to compute, but hard to crack with todays’ technology.  Any picture that you send through CryptoPic is encrypted in your end and only decrypted in the other users’ end. CryptoPic will not store the pictures, and even if an interceptor Eve were to interfere, all they would see would be some encrypted bits. Anyone who uses emails and apps face a danger from businesses that are trying to gather, control and exploit personal data that interferes with our right of freedom. By offering a service like CryptoPic, we can make cyber-defense more accessible to everyone.

The most important aspect of this project is its simplicity. You don’t have to study abstract algebra to use CryptoPic, but studying it would definitely give you a better understanding of the elliptic curve cryptograph and RSA hidden in the source code. The simpler the app in the user-end, more secure it is, since that means that more people will be using it.

Also, one main aspect which will differentiate it from its peers is its compatibility with the non-app owners. Even if the person you send it to doesn’t own the app, there will still be a way for you two to communicate over a browser. Both parties having the app will make it much simpler, but it is hard to rely on all your friends having the same app. Instead, the app will send a request to the other person to meet up, and with a click on a link, both parties will behave as if they are in CryptoPic and they can freely send pictures (and text if they so choose) 

After it reaches a certain level in its development, it will be open-source. This will mean that a tech-savvy person will be able to pick it up and form its own Intranet secure chat service. By making it open-source, the app will be constantly developed by people who have experience in a variety of fields: cryptography, back-end programming, front-end programming, graphics design, database management, to name just a few. 

My goal is making cyber defense more accessible to the public with this project while fostering an environment for developments in image processing and cryptography. You don’t have to be a black belt to know a little bit of self defense, and CryptoPic is ready to teach you the necessary moves.

• Team Leader: Efe Aras, efe.aras@duke.edu (Pratt 2017)
  
• Team: Efe Aras, Pratt School of Engineering, 2017, efe.aras@duke.edu
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Internet, IT & Media

DREAM - Dose Reduction in CT

• Team Leader: Laurie Cumberbatch, laurie.cumberbatch@duke.edu (The Graduate School 2015)
  
• Team: Zhonglin Han, Physics, 2016, zhonglin.han@duke.edu
• Larry Cumberbatch, Medical Physics, 2015, lcc15@duke.edu
• Elijah Cole, ECE, 2017, elijah.john.cole@gmail.com
• Godefroy Chery, School of Medicine 2018, gchery863@gmail.com
• Mu Tian, Statistics 2018 (Stony Brook), kevintian@gmail.com
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Social Enterprises

Droplet - The Internet is splintered. The world’s information is at your fingertips, but rarely with the context that it needs -- even though the advice given in America might not be applicable in Europe, or from one city to the next. Photos are given tags if you’re lucky, and good luck trying to find town-specific information without hitting a website from the ‘90s, even with a modern search engine. Anybody who needed information specific to where they were, or wanted to leave a mark at a location they weren’t likely come back to again-- that’s our customers.

Enter Droplet. 

It’s a new type of information sharing, one that puts location first. All the information that makes your hometown uniquely yours? Drop that info -- virtually -- and it’ll be there for posterity. Visiting some awesome place? Drop your picture onto that location and it’ll be there for as long as you want to show your friends. Imagine a bustling community: it’ll replace bulletin boards, word of mouth, posters, and billboards with rich multimedia, information tied to buildings, and place-specific video, all coming together into one virtual reality. And as time goes on, locations will acquire a metadata of its own, complete with its history-- but one with text, video, and all the richness of the information age. 

Droplet is the marriage of information and location.

• Team Leader: Edward Liang, edward.liang@duke.edu (Pratt 2018)
• Team: Edward Liang, Pratt, 2018, edl13@duke.edu
• Yixin Lin, Trinity, 2018, yl309@duke.edu
• Cody Li, Pratt, 2018, cl305@duke.edu
• Paul Cruz, Pratt, 2018, pbc8@duke.edu
  
• Location: Boyds, MD
  
• Track: Social Enterprises

DUKEPARK Interactive Assembly - A person buys an item. This item needs to be assembled before it can be used. The person opens the package and starts putting the parts together. Tensions soar when the parts do not fit properly. The person looks for the assembly instructions in which the illustrated parts are not easily identifiable with the parts from the package, and the written instructions appear to be in greek and latin. A very large number of people experience this situation on a daily basis.

DUKEPARK provides freedom to people with Augmented Reality(AR) assembly instructions. The person can easily mount his/her portable electronic device into AR frames such as google cardboard and see animated parts that hover on top of the real world. This intuitive solution allows the person to save time and enjoy the things that matter the most.

• Team Leader: porteaux islas, pei@duke.edu (Pratt - MEMP 2015) 
• Team: Porteaux Islas, Master of Engineering Management Duke University, 2015, porteaux.islas@duke.edu
• Ashwin Dandekar, Master of Electrical Engineering Duke University, 2015, shwin.dandekar@duke.edu
• Ergys Ristani, PhD Student in Computer Science Duke University, 201x, ergys.ristani@duke.edu
• Meng Huang, Graduate Student Master of Engineering Duke University, 2014, emg.huang2@duke.edu
  
• Location: Greensboro, NC
  
• Track: Other Products & Services

Edulyf - Higher education in India, unlike in developed countries, is based on performance in a series of entrance examinations that are NOT coaching proof. This means that a student, with financial access to expensive, high quality, high profile coaching institutes will do proportionally better in these life-changing examinations than those without. Complicating this unfair scenario is the massive gap in standards of education between the best schools and the average schools and the below average schools. Students without access to good coaching resources invariably end up in below average schools, get exposed to limited resources, acquire jobs below their potential and under perform for their entire lives. 

This manifests in two major ways, as we have identified. 

1. Gap between very good schools (few) and very average/bad schools (many): this means that lakhs of students compete for few spots in very good schools based on these coachable, fixed-curriculum entrance examinations. Obviously, students with better purchasing power land spots in extremely good schools, have access to various resources to build good careers and manage to do so. The other segment is left out very conspicuously.  According to Seventh All India School Education Survey 2013-2014, 85% of the students who are financially weak or mediocre in India are unable to receive quality of education which can help them build good future careers. Education in 75% of secondary (9th and 10th) and higher secondary (11th and 12th) schools of India is not at par level due to under-qualified faculty.  Around 31.1 million students are devoid of good quality education. This results in a scenario where such students cannot even attempt the entrance examinations without private coaching. 

This causes many families to take out heavy loans/mortgages to allow their children access to coaching, but even this is a very small section with the resources to do so. As a result, more than 90% of students from financially weak backgrounds end up returning to their villages, often resorting to do manual labor or extremely underpaid jobs after years of investment in education. 

2.     More than 80% of seats in higher education schools and government jobs are taken off financially sound students - the education scene is reduced to a divide between the haves and the have not’s, than true, pure merit. 

The situation calls for the need to create an open access educational resource. Edulyf.com is an initiative that began in Sept 2013, that provides free study material, handwritten notes, video lectures and online practice tests for various competitive examinations offered across the country. In addition, edunws.com and unimerit.in are two sub-units of edulyf.com, which provide resources on career counseling, free education updates and information. In the small span of 1 year, edulyf’s website has grown from 0 to 230,000 visitors in July 2014 and has received thousands of comments in appreciation of its efforts.

We are not against private coaching institutes. They are providers of high quality education, however, indirectly, they are seriously affecting students and job aspirants from economically weaker sections of society. 

The education scene in India calls for drastic change. The education revolution that has overtaken the West, in the form of MOOCs and sites like Coursera reflect the potential of growth that lies dormant in India. Only in India, these resources can change the life of an individual from extreme poverty, depression and poor standard of living to healthy, vibrant and productive lives.

• Team Leader: Aditya Sharma, aditya.sharma@duke.edu (Pratt - MEMP 2015) aditya.sharma@duke.edu
• Sandesh Sharma, ITM Bhilwara India, 2007, sandesh@edulyf.com
• Saket Saurabh, XLRI Jamshedpur India, 2016, saket@edulyf.com
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Social Enterprises

ello.raw - As a nation, we are becoming incredibly conscious consumers. We are beginning to really care about what we are buying and what we are eating. Research has shown that what we eat really affects how we feel and how are bodies function. Unfortunately, most of the food products on grocery store shelves are full of chemicals, fillers and preservatives. Not anymore!  ello.raw makes healthy, organic dessert bites that are 100% raw. 

There is a huge movement for health. The organic industry is over 35 billion dollars and our animal product consumption is decreasing rapidly. Over 1/3 of Americans are looking to add more plant based meals into their diets. That is 100 million people! Raw foods are clean, real, and whole foods that can completely change how we eat!

 People want to be able to snack and eat great tasting desserts without feeling like crap afterwards, and we’ve filled that need. We’ve created a truly raw, truly delicious option that is completely clean and guilt-free. Our dessert bites also contain super foods like Goji berries, raw cacao and coconut oil that improve your health one bite at a time.

• Team Leader: Rebecca Holmes, rah39@duke.edu (Trinity 2015) rah39@duke.edu
  
• Location: Columbia, PA
  
• Track: Social Enterprises

Fangshi - Fangshi is an ecommerce platform linking emerging middle class in China to established high-end consignment boutiques in the U.S. and Europe. Fangshi aims to provide a unique and targeted boutique experience currently unavailable in Chinese e-commerce.

• Team Leader: Yizhou Jiang, yj56@duke.edu (Trinity 2017)
  
• Team: Kishin Wadhwani, Fuqua School of Business, 2014, kwadhwani@gmail.com
• Chloe Songer, Trinity College of Arts and Science, 2014, chloemarie32@gmail.com
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Other Products & Services

FlowGhost - Flowghost is an app that quantifies homework and tests to better cater to the needs of students, teachers, and recruiters. For any given course, teachers can tag assignment and test questions with categories or skills that are utilized. Through elegant data visualizations, students can then see what areas of the course they should specifically be studying and working on as they progress through the course. Additionally, Flowghost allows for recruiters to recruit based on very specific skills and traits using the data that is input from students and teachers. Team Leader: Christina Lan, christina.lan@duke.edu (Pratt 2015)

• Team: Professor Craig Roberts, Ph.D, Trinity, craig.roberts@duke.edu
• Team: Dr. Nicholas Carnes, nicholas.carnes@duke.edu
• Tara Gu, Pratt School of Engineering,  2017, tara.gu@duke.edu
• Sid Gopinath, Trinity College, 2017, sid.gopinath@duke.edu
• Christina Lan, Trinity College, 2015, christina.lan@duke.edu
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Internet, IT & Media

frescue - Mobile app that connects homeowners, farms, farmers markets, and supermarkets with excess fruit and vegetables to nonprofits and volunteers who donate the produce to receiving agencies, empowering communities to rescue fresh fruit and vegetables and combat food insecurity

• Team Leader: Daniel Ketyer, daniel.ketyer@duke.edu (Trinity 2016)
  
• Team: Steven Heer, Trinity, 2016, steven.heer@duke.edu
• Daniel Ketyer, Trinity, 2016, daniel.ketyer@duke.edu
  
• Location: Venetia, PA
  
• Track: Social Enterprises

Future Insight - We aim to achieve this goal of motivating and empowering low to mid-income high school students by providing a video platform that will allow them to find, match, and learn from professionals anywhere in the world about college selection, career choices, and a road map on how to get there.

• Team Leader: Saad Dar, saad.dar@duke.edu (Fuqua - Daytime MBA 2015) 
• Team: Alvin Wade, Fuqua, 2015, alvin.wade@duke.edu
• Laura Vardanian, non-student, laura.vardanian@gmail.com
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Social Enterprises

Graphene Based Desalination - Graphene is an emerging material that is causing a market disruption in the medical, electronic, light processing, plasmonic, sensor and energy industries, among others. In the electronic industry, for example, they enhance computing performance, increase internet speeds, speed up battery charging, and produce more efficient supercapacitors. In the medical industry, it can be used to engineer bone tissue and serve as a drug delivery vehicle. Graphene is made of a single layer of carbon atoms, one million times thinner than paper, stronger than diamond and conducts electricity and heat better than any material ever discovered. To put its characteristics in perspective, Columbia University mechanical engineering professor James Hone mentioned it as “so strong it would take an elephant, balanced on a pencil, to break through a sheet of graphene the thickness of Saran Wrap”. Research conducted at MIT suggests that graphene can outperform all other water desalination mechanisms significantly.

In emerging economies, major investment in water resource infrastructure is on the forefront. For this reason, managing the development of water desalination industries, regionally and internationally, is imperative. Nomura International plc, in its industry report, details that installed desalination capacity worldwide is expected to almost double to 132.5 million m3/day by 2016 from 69.8 million m3/day in 2009. The study also notes that Saudi Arabia, our initial target market for water desalination, is in need of over $50 billion in desalination projects investment in the next 10 years.

Having been in the water filtration realm for four years performing research and development in producing cost-effective water filtration technologies for rural, underprivileged populations, our research has led us to being able to produce 1 gram of graphene at under $50. This is in comparison to the current graphene price on the market of $200-300/gram. The way in which we have been able to achieve this substantially lower cost is by using a bio-friendly process starting with the use of readily-available raw source materials and putting it through a process which does not involve strong, harmful chemicals, while other graphene production mechanisms require using graphite as the source material and processing it with the use of strong acids. The cost savings does not stop at just the per gram production, however. Current desalination methods also require a tremendous amount of energy to push the salt-water molecules through a membrane. We have developed a proprietary method to minimize pressure required to force the salt water through the membrane. This reduction in pressure would lower power consumption and make our energy efficient solution more affordable.

Being able to produce graphene, a revolutionary material, at a remarkably low cost has been a great feat for us. However, we are still working towards finding a membrane material to impregnate the graphene onto, which will optimize filtration. In the meantime, there is a significant graphene market in the aforementioned industries above. The global market for graphene reached $18 million in 2014 with the majority of sales being in the semiconductor, electronics, battery energy and composites industry. It is safe to say the reason why graphene is not more widely used for its wide array of applications is because of its high cost. Penetrating the market with graphene produced at a fraction of the cost of graphene available today will increase the reach and use of it significantly. Our graphene sales will generate cash flow to fund and drive our desalination membrane R&D.

• Team Leader: Osama AlRaee, osama.alraee@duke.edu (Fuqua - Daytime MBA 2016)
  
• Team: Arsheen Allam, arsheen.allam@gmail.com
• Osama AlRaee, Fuqua, 2016, osama.alraee@duke.edu
• Aqeel AlRajhi, Fuqua, 2016, aqeel.alrajhi@duke.edu
• Aziz ElSous, Fuqua, 2016, aziz.elsous@duke.edu
• Dylan Peterson, Trinity, 2015, dylanpeterson18@gmail.com
• Emma Smith, Trinity, 2016, emma.g.smith@duke.edu
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Other Products & Services

GroundTruth - GroundTruth is a software platform that improves the flow of information and lowers transaction costs between fresh vegetable farmers and supermarkets. By allowing supermarkets to have more information about what they are buying, and growers to make more informed growing decisions based on supermarket preferences, it enables both growers and retailers to capture more value, while reducing food waste.

• Team Leader: Eric Vandenbrink, eric.vandenbrink@fuqua.duke.edu (Fuqua - Daytime MBA 2015)
  
• Team: Eric Chappell, Nicholas/Fuqua (MEM/MBA), 2015, eric.chappell@fuqua.duke.edu
• Wes Ross, Pratt (PhD), 2017 (expected), weston.ross@duke.edu
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Internet, IT & Media

Grow With Nigeria - Fixing Nigeria’s healthcare problems requires an unbridled flow of information and knowledge between two distinct communities – Nigeria emigrants (who happen to be highly skilled) and local community members. The reason for this is two-fold: emigrants and local community members offer different, but equally important perspectives and approaches to solving problems. For example, emigrants may have extensive training in certain fields and may have garnered exposure to some of the most innovative ways of addressing health care issues. Some emigrants who may have been born and raised in the country before leaving to pursue higher education may also have a bilateral perspective that will prove helpful in solving problems. It is however important to understand that health care solutions must be tailored to the community of interest and the on-the-ground perspective offered by local community members will be immensely valuable in developing the most effective interventions. Knowing the science or research potential is one thing and developing interventions that are applicable to a select community is another. 

•           Training the next generation of talented and driven young Nigerians (both at home and abroad) on the most effective ways to develop community health programs that will have the greatest impact (Grades K10-12).

•           Providing opportunities for young STEM professionals currently located in the diaspora to work collaboratively with young professionals in Nigeria to develop solutions to pressing issues.

• Team Leader: Teminioluwa Ajayi, taa18@duke.edu (School of Medicine 2018)
  
• Team: Mr. Temi Ajayi, MPH – Chair
• Mr. Kerry Omughelli (Co-chair) 
• Ms. Deborah Adeboyejo (officer)
• Mr. Tobi Lapite (officer) 
• Ms. Tolani Ayo-Vaughn (officer)
• Mr. Ibukunoluwa Eweje
• Location: College Station, TX
  
• Track: Social Enterprises

Imcrunch - Digital advertising success can be attributed, in large part, to the amount of information on the web available about a person. A person’s images reveal many of their consumer preferences such as accessories owned, how they like to use those and where. Imcrunch is a new system that can provide user-specific analytics to advertising companies based on a person’s images. Leveraging recent breakthroughs in machine learning and hardware development, images can be mined for style of dress, accessories in different settings, and activities. Imcrunch will act as a service to advertisement companies, to identify in real-time items and the context in which they are used by the consumer, to match the user with products and activities consistent with a their lifestyle.

• Team Leader: Daniel Reichman, dr137@duke.edu (Pratt 2-16)
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Internet, IT & Media

InDorse - InDorse is mobile application that allows users to find rewards, and provides them in exchange for visiting businesses and connecting with them via social media. InDorse acts as a 'fire-and-forget' automated rewards system for small-businesses that nets them new and loyal customers.

• Team Leader: Andrew Welcome, acw29@duke.edu (Trinity 2016) 
• Stephanie Engle, Trinity, 2016, stephanie.engle@duke.edu
• Rahim Gokal, Trinity, 2016, rahim.gokal@duke.edu
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Other Products & Services

LadyLike Experiments - LadyLike Experiments provides monthly packages containing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) projects for girls ages 8-11. Studies have shown that girls up to age 9 feel confident in their analytical abilities, and this confidence almost entirely vanishes during and after adolescence. The result is a shortage of women pursuing degrees in STEM (20% of STEM-related degrees are earned by women), and thus a shortage of women working in STEM industries. Parents are willing to spend more on STEM products for their daughters, because they realize a career in STEM will mean future job security and higher pay for their daughters. However, there are few companies offering STEM products tailored to the interests of young girls. LadyLike Experiments is also unique in that identifying with girls does not mean making STEM products pink. Instead, our company incorporates research on the true gender differences between boys and girls, and seeks to highlight those in experiments that have their roots firmly in education.

• Team Leader: Taylor Mavrakos, taylorrae117@gmail.com (Trinity 2015)
  
• Team: Morgan Simons, Pratt School of Engineering, 2015, morgan.simons@duke.edu
• Ashley Qian, Trinity, 2015, ashley.qian.0@gmail.com
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Other Products & Services

microHEALTH, microbiome consulting - microHEALTH is a wellness consulting firm that specializes in helping clients optimize their personal microbiomes. Our services include (1) characterization of clients’ microbiomes using state-of-the-art sequencing techniques; (2) educating clients on established scientific literature and cutting-edge microbiome research; (3) formulation of plan of action to achieve microbiome desired by client based on scientifically sound research; and (4) follow-up consults to track microbiome changes over time. Ultimately, our goal is to support our clients in actualizing their ideal microbiomes and to do so by integrating our knowledge of the microbiome science with our expertise in microbial ecology and next-generation sequencing.

• Team Leader: Tara Essock-Burns, tara.essock-burns@duke.edu (Nicholas School of the Environment 2015)
  
• Team: Chris Ward, Nicholas School of the Environment, Ph.D. Candidate, 2015, christopher.ward@duke.edu
• Location: Beaufort, NC
  
• Track: Healthcare & Life Sciences

Mobile Health Diagnostics - Strip Diagnotics, Inc. is a Start-Up mobile health company that seeks to help diabetics screen for, and monitor, chronic kidney disease by using existing low-cost urinalysis test strips and integrating test outcomes to a mobile technology interface that will provide patient education, deliver real-time interpretation of results, preserve a medical record, and provide useful medical information to a variety of stakeholders.

• Team Leader: Jose Magana Paredes, magana.jo@gmail.com (Fuqua - Daytime MBA 2016)
  
• Team: Jose Magaña Paredes, Fuqua SOB / Nicholas School of the Environment, 2016, jose.magana@duke.edu
• Kumiko Shima, Fuqua SOB, 2014, kumiko.shima@duke.edu
• Sriram Vepuri, Graduate School / Nicholas School of the Environment, 2016, sriram.vepuri@duke.edu
• Stanley Liu, Fuqua SOB, 2016, stanley.liu@duke.edu Location:
  
• Durham, NC
  
• Track: Healthcare & Life Sciences

NewCo. - Doctors David Brady, Ken MacCabe, and Joel Greenberg have invented an x-ray based imaging technology at Duke University that is capable of producing tomographic images with three-dimensional (3D) positive material identification. This technology is generally termed “Coded Aperture X-ray Scatter Imaging” (CAXSI), and has emerged from DHS-funded efforts to improve explosives detection for transportation security. During CAXSI research and development, the inventors have recognized the potential for enormous impact in markets other than transportation security, namely industrial non-destructive testing (NDT) and medical imaging. To this end, they will be forming “NewCo.”, an entity focused on commercialization of this exciting technology.

Conventional X-ray imaging technology (e.g. computed tomography, mammography, and projection radiography) is useful for determining the shapes of objects, but cannot reliably identify their material compositions. Existing X-ray imaging machines are therefore limited for important tasks such as distinguishing healthy from cancerous tissue, identifying explosive materials in luggage, determining the quality of food in processing plants, and many more.  Current solutions in these areas involve invasive procedures, such as needle biopsies and manual inspection of luggage. By adapting the demonstrated CAXSI technology to suit particular applications in medicine and industrial inspection, customers in these sectors will no longer need to perform invasive procedures or complicated sample preparation in order to determine chemical constituents of 3D objects.

• Team Leader: RJ Schultz, rj.schultz@duke.edu (Pratt 2016) Team: Joel Greenberg, PhD
• Ken MacCabe, PhD
• RJ Schultz, Fuqua, 2016, rj.schultz@duke.edu
• Taylor Bull, Fuqua, 2015, taylor.bull@duke.edu
• Camille Blanco, Fuqua, 2016, camille.blanco@duke.edu
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Other Products & Services

Over Easy - Over Easy is a service that allows people to pre-order breakfast straight to their doors within a preselected delivery window. We prepare a simple, delicious menu and streamline the process from kitchen to consumer with our technology stack. Over Easy combines the luxury of room service with the convenience of a wake up call.

• Team Leader: John Shoemaker, john@overeasyapp.com (Trinity 2015)
• Team:Ben Richter, Trinity School of Arts and Sciences, 2015, ben@overeasyapp.com
• Ethan Gottlieb, Trinity School of Arts and Sciences, 2015, ethan@overeasyapp.com
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Other Products & Services

Packnada - In an increasingly globalized world, air travel has become ubiquitous, especially in the corporate sector. It’s commonplace to see business travelers fly several times a month, sometimes even multiple times per week. For each trip, travelers face various menial tasks that add unnecessary stress. Clothes have to be planned during the day and laboriously packed before traveling. Travelers then join airport lines to check their luggage or go through the hassle of unpacking their items for security. With the post-trip comes tedious unpacking, washing, and ironing. Rinse and repeat several times a month…It is no surprise that 1 in 4 business travelers don’t enjoy the business of frequent travel (YouGov Business Travel, 2014)

Packnada is about changing the way frequent travelers approach packing. It’s a service that combines wardrobe and “cloud storage” so packing for travel is no longer a necessity. Instead of packing for each flight, users leave their bag at the hotel. Packnada picks it up, does the laundry, and stores it safely. Upon return, travelers can arrive to clean, ironed clothes delivered straight to their hotels.

Our vision is to remove frequent travel woes such as packing, long lines, and baggage expenses for millions of frequent business travelers.

• Team Leader: Priyang Shah, priyang.shah@duke.edu (Trinity 2015) 
• Location: Charlotte, NC
  
• Track: Other Products & Services

Putting Your Best Face Forward - It's long been said that the camera adds ten pounds, rumored that one side of our face is ""better"", and known that pictures can’t truly capture the real you. But, how do you have time to go through the more than 300 photos you'll take this year? How do you know if it’s one of your top photos? All of us have better things to do than examine each one, but we still want to show our best photos.

Our application technology looks at photos on your phone, finds images with your face, and sorts them bringing the most flattering images of your face to you. You can give feedback to individualize and improve the quality of your rankings. Users get time savings, peace of mind, and a confidence boost from validation. The result is less time spent looking at your bad photos and more time for taking more photos, posting them online, and enjoying your day.

• Team Leader: Lauren Bange, lauren.bange@duke.edu (Pratt 2019)
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Internet, IT & Media

Sangha Teahouse - Sangha Teahouse is a Duke-based startup that provides a unique environment for the Durham community, a place to slow down, to put aside the stresses and cares of our busy lives, to enjoy fine teas from around the world, and to be present to ourselves and with each other.

• Team Leader: Jeremy Lipkowitz, jeremy.lipkowitz@duke.edu (The Graduate School 2017) 
• Team: Jennie Dickson, Duke Counseling and Psychological Services, jennie.dickson@duke.edu
• Leslie Woods, Master of Global Innovation Management & Entrepreneur, juice@raleighraw.com
• Michael Mills, M.Arch, MFA, Designer, michael@mkmills.com
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Social Enterprises

Speiro - Currently, 463,000 children live in foster care. In North Carolina, 9,063 youth are currently in the system. These are simply the numbers of those who live the reality of no home, no belonging, and loneliness daily. This does not begin to quantify the cost of losing the ingenuity and gifts these youth offer, but have limited opportunity to give.

The solution is Speiro, a boarding school for youth that serves to educate, inspire, and transform youth living both in foster care and in the community in collaboration with others working towards this end.

• Team Leader: Andrea Hendee, Andee.hendee@fuqua.duke.edu (Fuqua - Daytime MBA 2016)
  
• Team: Andee Hendee, Fuqua School of Business and Nicholas School of the Environment, 2016, andee.hendee@fuqua.duke.edu
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Social Enterprises

Strensor Systems Shielding - Strensor Systems has developed a revolutionary new shielding technology to reduce electromagnetic interference for sensitive equipment. This new technology can be produced for a fraction of the cost of current shields and is far more effective. It is applying this technology to sensitive measurement and process control systems in order to reduce waste and production cost.

• Team Leader: Christian Hubbs, christian.hubbs@strensor.com (The Graduate School 2014)
  
• Team: Patrick Bowen, BSc. NC State/MSc. ETH Zürich/PhD Duke University - Electrical Engineering, 2011/2013/2016, patrick.bowen@duke.edu
• Christian Hubbs, BSc. Ohio State University/MSc. ETH Zürich, 2011/2013, christian.hubbs@strensor.com
• Alex Hayes, BSc. ETH Zürich, 2017, alexander.hayes@strensor.com
• Augustin Zaininger, BSc. ETH Zürich, 2015, augustin.zaininger@strensor.com
  
• Location: Zürich, 
  
• Track: Other Products & Services

Sunvestment Group - Sunvestment Group is developing a community-based PPA (Community PPA) investment platform and partnership program to improve funding access for mid-market solar energy installations (20 kW to 500 kW).  Presently, many nonprofit organizations and small-to-medium-sized for-profit operations throughout the United States are unable to deploy solar photovoltaic energy projects.  The former cannot take advantage of tax credits, while the latter often have difficulty deploying sufficient capital to implement solar projects.   The Community PPA approach could potentially help as many as 30% to 60% of the 36,000 municipalities/towns/townships, 127,000 public and private schools, and 1,580,000 nonprofit organizations across the U.S to gain access to low cost solar energy.  

Unique to the Sunvestment Group Community PPA service is the focus on local community investors, financiers, and stakeholders. These individuals are more comfortable with local site-hosts (and their associated credit risks) and perceive value above and beyond financial value, including the intangible values of pride, marketing value, and the desire to help the local community organization.  This results in a reduction of the cost of capital and the ability to complete smaller, more challenging PPA projects that otherwise might not obtain financing from traditional PPA providers.  The Community PPA vehicle will accelerate the deployment of solar photovoltaic installations throughout the United States for customers who may have previously been challenged to complete traditional PPA financing arrangements.

Local investors can participate in the purchase of the solar array through the Community PPA investment vehicle and benefit from attractive returns, while the site-host obtains savings greater than those available through traditional funding mechanisms.  The Sunvestment Group Community PPA model typically reduces the cost of financing projects for non-profit and commercial entities by 20% to 50% through a lower cost of capital.  The lower capital costs combined with lower transaction costs—from leveraging template documents and financial structuring knowledge—allow initial energy rate discounts to the site-host of approximately 15% to 30%.  More common PPA discounts, by comparison, average 10% to 20%.  The Community PPA approach also provides benefits to local communities by distributing the solar investment returns and their corresponding economic benefits to the community itself where it can have an economic development multiplier effect, all while educating the community about the benefits of renewable energy.

• Team Leader: Carla Ortiz, co61@duke.edu (Nicholas School of the Environment 2015) 
• Team:Jim Kurtz, President, Sunvestment Group, jkurtz@sunvestmentgroup.com
• Christopher Flynn, Vice President of Finance, Sunvestment Group, cflynn@sunvestmentgroup.com
• Matthew Rankin, Director. of Business Development, Sunvestment Group, mrankin@sunvestmentgroup.com
• Michael Drei, Director of Marketing and Communications, Sunvestment Group, mdrei@sunvestmentgroup.com
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Clean Energy

Taxaroo - The Airbnb of taxes - Taxaroo is a marketplace to pair experienced tax professionals with individuals and small businesses needing to file taxes, providing a convenient, virtual process through a website and an app. Think Airbnb of taxes.

• Team Leader: Brian Liebert, brian.liebert@fuqua.duke.edu (Fuqua - Daytime MBA 2015)
  
• Team: Brian Liebert, Fuqua School of Business, 2015, brian.liebert@fuqua.duke.edu
• Ben Donahue, Fuqua School of Business, 2015, ben.donahue@fuqua.duke.edu
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Internet, IT & Media

The Social Chic - The  quintessential Indian woman loves to dream, she starts weaving her dreams the day she starts visualizing things around her. But how many of those young girls are actually able to even take the first step towards the life they deserve to live. With the growing trends in woman empowerment, the situation is improving but every extra mile of help really helps! 

I have a very simple concept which works with the unmet needs of the young crowd especially the age groups of 18-24 and 24- 35 to be the brand ambassadors for helping the young Indian girl live her dreams while they shine as a princess in their world. 

The young undergrad and grad crowd in India still lives majorly on the pocket money from their parents and have to meet tons of their unmet needs from their monthly pocket money. Their love for being social keeps increasing as they engage and broaden their network. A party lover at heart, these kids love to wear the coolest dresses and hate repeating them for every other occasion. They dream of wearing the creations of upscale fashion designers who can’t fit a simple black dress in their budget. Parents are not comfortable with the idea of spending heavily on their kids party dresses because the kids lose interest in that awesome dress after the party is over. 

Another challenge is the counterfeit dresses which are duplicates of the makes of the fashion designers and get sold in the fake market for a very cheap price. The young crowd though has full awareness of the illegal buying of these dresses are ready to buy those low quality, fake dresses so that they can have a change for every other occasion. 

What if we are able to connect with the coolest fashion designers in town and they rent dresses to these young crowd? It is a win-win situation for both. 

The fashion designers will be able to tap an unexplored market, increase their market share, get the popularity in the young crowd, minimize the issue of counterfeit dresses floating in the market. 

The young crowd and their parents would be more comfortable to rent the dress for a day or two rather than buying an average looking dress which sees the light just once and gets trashed into the closet forever. 

My team is building a platform to enable a rental dress in partnership with top designers and connecting them with the young crowd. The kids get to showcase their dresses online and also have their voice on the website. 

And yes, the most important element is for every dress rented, a percentage of the earnings go towards a social fund for the young girls we would adopt for chasing their dreams. No longer the chic in the young crowd would feel that she is partying without a social cause. She truly lives to be, what we call, “Social Chic”.

• Team Leader: Prajakta Remulkar, prajakta.remulkar@duke.edu (Fuqua - EMBA (CC, GEMBA, WEMBA) 2014)
• Team: Nitin Mathur - The Fuqua School of Business, 2014, nitin.mathur@duke.edu
• Vikram Yadav - The Fuqua School of Business, 2014, vikram.yadav@duke.edu
• Apurva Shah - The Fuqua School of Business 2014, apurva.shah@duke.edu
• Gauri Kothavle - J J School of architecture, 2014, kothavlegauri@gmail.com
• Ishita Khanna - Entrepreneur in Fashion and Styling, ikhanna.ishita@gmail.com
• Prajakta Remulkar - The Fuqua School of Business 2014 Marketing and Socio Entrepreneur, prajakta.remulkar@duke.edu
• Selin Yilmaz -The Fuqua School of Business 2014 selin.yilmaz@duke.edu
  
• Location: Irving, TX
  
• Track: Social Enterprises

Three Men Walking - Three Men Walking is a company intent on making high performance, low cost technologies. Our first product, the MIMera is a multipurpose camera that has high end features, at an entry level price. The MIMera also has ground breaking features that set it apart from other devices on the market. It is water and drop proof without an external case, it utilizes your smartphone as a control and display, it can stream live video, and it is affordable. Three Men Walking have a working prototype that is currently in testing.

• Team Leader: Vaibhav Tadpealli, vaibhav.tadepalli@duke.edu (Trinity 2017)
  
• Team: Vaibhav Tadepalli, Trinity College, 2017, Vaibhav.tadepalli@duke.edu
  
• Christopher Reyes, Graduate School Chemistry Dept 1st year 2014, Christopher.reyes@duke.edu
• Shengrong Ye, PhD, Duke Chemistry Staff, Shengrong.ye@duke.edu
  
• Location: Purcellville, VA
  
• Track: Other Products & Services

Trailblazer - Trailblazer is a system that requires only a modern Android smartphone and an internet connection to generate a building’s digital representation. When people walk around a given location with their devices, their movements are tracked and merged to create a map that only improves as time goes on. 

We recognize that outdoor mapping technology, popularized by such tools as Google Maps and MapQuest, has dramatically changed the way people navigate and explore the world of local streets and interstate highways alike. We want to extend this mapping revolution to large buildings and other indoor structures, whose walkways and corridors can often be equally as perplexing as their surrounding environments with Trailblazer.

• Team Leader: Elish Mahajan, edm16@duke.edu (Trinity 2018)
  
• Team: Elish Mahajan, Trinity, 2018, edm16@duke.edu Sanjay Kannan, Stanford University, 2018, skalon@stanford.edu
• Andrew Zhou, University of California Berkley, 2018, Aazhou@berkeley.edu
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Internet, IT & Media

Vitrium Health - The current OR inventory workflow wastes hospital resources. 

Currently, medical supply companies deploy sales representatives who monitor surgeon-technician dialogue in the OR to develop a list of used inventory. The hand-written list is given to a nurse who enters the data into an electronic health record. This five-step process is highly error prone, costs medical supply companies $13.5 Billion per year, and is opposed by 75% of hospitals today. Vitrium automates the process of OR inventory management through an innovative and elegant platform: Google Glass. 

Glass makes us different. Automation makes us valuable.

Google Glass is the ideal medium for healthcare automation. Hands-free wearables are inherently sterile, providing Vitrium a unique benefit over tactilely-intensive methods, like barcode or RFID scanners. Our program enables a technician to catalogue any item simply by winking into the device and dictating the name of the item used. Our algorithms match these data against the hospital’s inventory, request a confirmation from the technician in seconds, and then enter the data into the hospital’s electronic health record. The automation of this workflow creates massive value for hospitals by saving time - redirecting highly skilled labor toward revenue generating functions (like performing additional surgeries).

• Team Leader: Charles Zhao, charles.zhao@duke.edu (Trinity 2017)
  
• Team: Charles Zhao, Trinity '17 charles.zhao@duke.edu
• Selene Parekh, Fuqua School of Business, Duke Medical School, selene.parekh@gmail.com 
• Param Sidhu , N/A (Yale College '17) param.sidhu@yale.edu
• Rijul Gupta, N/A (Yale College '16) rijul.gupta@yale.edu
  
• Location: Chapel Hill, NC
  
• Track: Healthcare & Life Sciences

Vivify - Meaningless small talk is an epidemic that affects us all. Every day, our interactions with people are dictated by social boundaries. Popular social apps like Tinder and Friendsy attempt to break these boundaries but only exacerbate the issue of superficiality. People have a natural tendency to gravitate to superficial topics because it’s comfortable and safe. Small talk is a social coordination. We don’t want to take any risks, so we go for the lowest common denominator when we talk to acquaintances and strangers, like the weather (ie. lovely day today!). But no risk means no value. The amount of time we lose to small talk is a waste since we are left with no insights or stimulation from our encounters. 

Additionally, opportunities to authentically engage with people from different social spheres become limited outside the classroom. When chances to connect with new people do arise, they are so often wasted by small talk that goes nowhere. 

With this in mind, imagine two strangers on the C1 East-West shuttle. How can these students become lifelong friends in a year? A month? How about 15 minutes? This is the process that we are attempting to create with Vivify. 

We are creating an iOS app that creates meaningful dialogue across boundaries by eliminating the impulse towards meaningless talk. After users sign a social contract agreeing to provide meaningful input, they are anonymously paired with someone from their university. Vivify offers specific prompts ranging from storytelling to exploring topics that may be serious, deep, fun, or even risqué. By stripping away superficiality by the root, our environment provides the opportunity to spark real and raw conversations.

• Team Leader: Elizabeth Kim, edk15@duke.edu (Trinity 2017)
  
• Team: Elizabeth Kim, Duke-Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, 2017, elizabeth.d.kim@duke.edu 
• Richard Liu, Pratt School of Engineering, 2017, richard.liu@duke.edu
• Sivaneshwaran Loganathan, Pratt School of Engineering, 2017, sl290@duke.edu 
• Bobby Lin, Duke-Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, 2017, bohan.lin@duke.edu 
• Sakura Takahashi, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, 2017, sakura.takahashi@duke.edu
  
• Adhar Maheshwari, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, 2017, adhar.maheshwari@duke.edu
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Social Enterprises

Waste to Energy Power Plant Kigali - I believe all humans deserve the opportunity to have access to electricity, yet there are 1.6 billion people that live without it.  This company harnesses the power of robust, proven, renewable biogas technologies to capitalize on burgeoning energy demands in East Africa in a way that creates reliable value to shareholders, closes the opportunity gap among the world's energy poor, and provides an economical solution to urban waste reduction.

• Team Leader: Andrew Seelaus, andrewseelaus@gmail.com (Nicholas School of the Environment 2017)
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Clean Energy

Wave BioLabs, LLC - Drug failure due to toxicity can account for over 30% of attrition in the pharmaceutical industry. The average developmental cost of a new drug is estimated at $800 million. Adjusting for the high attrition rate of approximately 90%, the capitalized cost climbs up to $1.5 billion. Therefore, developing better platforms that enable efficient and accurate toxicity prediction before significant capital commitment is of critical value.

Currently, each assay is only capable of testing a single mode of toxicity, such as cardiotoxicity or genotoxcity. We are developing a transformative approach to toxicology screening by unifying different modes of toxicity under a single testing framework. We propose to achieve this goal by conducting novel high content screening and applying active machine-learning techniques in data analysis. Specifically, we leverage the rich information content in the population heterogeneity structure of key cellular network functionalities. The same technology platform can also be adapted to drug efficacy screening and the optimization of compound libraries.

• Team Leader: Jonathan Slebodnick, jonathan.slebodnick@duke.edu (Pratt 2015)
  
• Team: Bochong Li, Pratt School of Engineering, Ph.D. candidate 2015, Bochong.li@duke.edu
• Mark Reardon, The Fuqua School of Business, 2016, mark.reardon@duke.edu
• Eric Sabo, The Fuqua School of Business, 2016, eric.sabo@duke.edu
• Jon Slebodnick, The Fuqua School of Business, 2016, jonathan.slebodnick@duke.edu 
• Lingchong You, Pratt School of Engineering, Paul Ruffin Scarborough Associate Professor of Engineering, you@duke.edu
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Healthcare & Life Sciences

Weight-bearing foot orthosis - _____

• Team Leader: marcus coleman, marcus.c.coleman@duke.edu (Pratt 2015)
  
• Team: Marcus Coleman, Pratt School of Engineering, Class of 2015, marcus.c.coleman@duke.edu
  
• Henry Farley, Pratt School of Engineering, Class of 2015, henry.farley@duke.edu
  
• Zach Leytus, Pratt School of Engineering, Class of 2015, zachary.leytus@duke.edu
  
• Darrin Lim, Pratt School of Engineering, Class of 2015, darrin.lim@duke.edu
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Healthcare & Life Sciences

WEWE - WEWE: Worldwide Empowerment of Women Engineers.

Our solution will unfold through a partnership with the WISER NGO, an organization that has founded a school and center for innovation in Muhuru Bay. This organization serves to further the education of secondary school aged girls in this community who are typically not given the same educational opportunities as boys. This past summer, we worked with faculty at the school to implement an engineering club there, which kicked up with a six week engineering module centered around renewable energy and light. The end project of this module was to create a mechanically powered flashlight with locally available materials. This test run was ultimately successful, with students constructing over 25 functional flashlights, which are still frequently used at the school during blackouts. Despite the fact that these light sources are handmade and therefore not necessarily as durable as something that was manufactured in a factory, the students have been successful in repairing any broken light sources quickly and putting them back into service. As designers and creators of these flashlights, the students have an intimate knowledge of the workings of the flashlight, which proves invaluable for repairs.

• Team Leader: Kendall Covington, kendallcovington@gmail.com (Pratt 2014)
  
• Team: Kendall Covington, Pratt School of Engineering, 2015, kendallcovington@gmail.com 
• Mikayla Wickman, Pratt School of Engineering, 2015, mikayla.wickman@gmail.com
  
• Location: Durham, NC
  
• Track: Other Products & Services

YourCal - People around the world, especially college students and young adults, face busy schedules and newly arising events to complicate their days. With multiple classes, extracurricular activities, or complex job schedules, people often forget to attend events or even write down that they have events to attend. Furthermore, with so many commitments to keep track of, it is difficult to stay aware of concerts, retail sales, and other promotions in your area. People need a quick and easy way to subscribe to an event promoter that will prevent them from missing out on the next big thing. 

Growing businesses often struggle to reach their target audiences with promotions for upcoming events. Should a business use Facebook, Twitter, emails, or flyers to promote their next big thing? What if marketers do not know who comprises their target audience? Now marketers have no need to worry, as there is a way for the public to convey to businesses who these businesses should target and how.  

Insert YourCal. YourCal is a social media application that allows users to easily organize, promote, and become aware of upcoming events on a personal, business, local, national, and global level. Users can create, edit, search for, and join calendar groups for extracurricular activities, classes, concerts, bars, retailers, sports teams, and more. After joining a calendar group, the group’s events are immediately synced with a user’s calendar, where the user can customize his or her calendar to reflect only the events that he or she wants to view. 

A bar using YourCal can promote live music events, discount drink nights, and themed occasions. Restaurants have the opportunity to distribute a list of their evening’s specials to their customers in order to entice them. Retail stores can notify their customers of upcoming sales or popular items coming to their store soon. Companies can notify their employees of upcoming meetings, dinners, and announcements. Television networks can utilize YourCal to notify their audiences of the programs that will air on a given day. Politicians can inform the public of where and when they will hold debates and speeches during their campaigns. Meanwhile, all users have the capability to communicate with others and share their opinions about upcoming, ongoing, and past events. 

These are just a few of the many things that people around the world can do with YourCal. We truly believe that YourCal is an application that can help anybody. Despite its dynamic and multidimensional capabilities, we are designing YourCal to be simple, easy-to-operate, and appealing to all customers. All a person needs to do is create an account and join a group. From there, they will never forget an event again.

• Team Leader: Joshua Rosen, jdr39@duke.edu (Pratt 2016)
  
• Kevin Button, Pratt School of Engineering, 2016, kevin.button@duke.edu 
• Anderson Speed, Pratt School of Engineering, 2016, anderson.speed@duke.edu
  
• Location: Chappaqua, NY
  
• Track: Internet, IT & Media