The Dietrich W. Botstiber Endowed Fellowship for Inventors and Entrepreneurs is generously supporting an annual competition for Drexel University senior design students in the College of Engineering and the School of Biomedical Engineering.  This competition is run by the Close School of Entrepreneurship in coordination with the College of Engineering. The purpose of the competition is to educate students on certain principles of entrepreneurship as well as provide student teams with funding to enhance their design project development. In addition, the competition is used to identify design projects that may have commercial potential and then work with students to discuss incubation options should they choose to pursue commercialization efforts during their senior year and potentially after graduation.

Competition criteria

The competition is open to any senior design team in the College of Engineering or the School of Biomedical Engineering. Competing teams will develop entrepreneurship skills including team building, business model development, customer development, and presentation development.

Prizes

Up to ten team prizes will be awarded in the amount of up to $1,000 per team, with the intention that the money will be used to reimburse supply expenditures for their senior design project.

Competition schedule

The following is the schedule of activities for the competition:

Fall term (education and applications)

• Applicants take an online educational program called “Entrepreneurship 101 for Engineers”. This can be taken anytime up until the end of January, is not for credit and will not cost you additional money. Email chucksacco@drexel.edu to be provided access to the program.
• Only one team member from each team is required to take the online program though all team members can participate if they wish to become better educated on technology commercialization strategies.
• The online program will require approximately three hours of online work and readings and will be accompanied with resources and tools that the teams can use for developing and testing their market viability ideas. Use of learnings from the program will be beneficial to your application.
• Friday, December 8, 2023 at 11:59pm: Team applications are due. The application will ask for certain ideas on marketability but will not require extensive business or entrepreneurship knowledge.
• Friday, December 15, 2023: Application acceptances will be announced. Applications will be reviewed by the Close School and the College of Engineering; applications that meet a minimum criterion will be accepted into the next phase of the competition.

Winter term (education and market development activities, competition presentation and awards)

• If not already completed in the fall, accepted applicants need to complete the online educational program referenced above.
• Teams will be provided with mentoring opportunities through the Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship.
• Applicants will be provided with further information regarding the competition presentation expectations.
• By Wednesday, January 31, 2024: Applicants will submit an essay that describes how they envision that their product/idea being sold into the market and describe the work that they accomplished to validate their ideas regarding market viability. This is submitted through the online education program portal.
• Friday, February 2, 2024 (tentative): Applicants will present in-person to a set of judges who will choose up to ten awardees. It will be at the judges’ discretion, in coordination with the Close School, to determine which, if any, of the teams receive awards and the prize amounts that will be awarded.

Application details and judging criteria

The initial application during the fall term will require basic information about the senior design team and their project, a description of the “problem” or “unmet need” their project focuses on and a short narrative that discusses their initial ideas regarding market viability, their ideal customer/user, and specific use cases.

The judging criteria used in the competition will be based on a review of the teams’ understanding of how to best determine and test market viability assumptions, their actual efforts accomplished in determining market viability, a cost-benefits analysis, a review of their essay, and use of prize funds.  Teams that put into substantive efforts into the suggested market development activities will likely fare better than other teams in the competition.

The judges for the competition will be comprised of impartial individuals from inside and outside the university selected by the engineering and entrepreneurship programs.

Competition notes

• No intellectual property or ownership is taken because of this competition
• Awardees will be paid prize money once they have submitted a W9 form to the Close School; the prize can be split among team members
• University policy requires that students indicate if they have previously been employed by the university. If so, their prize will be paid as a payroll payment and taxes may be taken out
• Please email Chuck Sacco at cns322@drexel.edu with any questions.

Application link