Minnesota's breakthrough ideas this year include a battery for storing solar power, a device to help doctors communicate across language barriers, and a service for managing online movie and music ratings.
Minnesota Cup organizers last week
announced division finalists for this year's sixth annual statewide entrepreneur contest. (We've pasted the complete list below.)
"Some of these ideas, you can tell they are thinking really big, and that's obviously what we want to see," says Matt Hilker, director of the Minnesota Cup.
Next, the finalists will make 12-minute oral presentations to the judges on Aug. 31 before division winners are named. The grand prize winner will then be announced Sept. 13 at McNamara Alumni Center.
One finalist in each division will receive $20,000 in seed capital. The grand prize winner will be awarded an additional $20,000. The student division winner receives a $5,000 prize.
The division finalists are:
High Tech Division
Curation Station--provides a multifaceted tool for gathering, curating and sharing content of nearly any media type on the web.
GeaCom--developing a multilingual medical communication system.
Open Preferences--provides a service that allows users to manage and control their ratings and preferences across many different media (e.g., music, movies, TV) and services (e.g., Netflix, TiVo, Yahoo, Last.FM, Pandora).
BioSciences Division
BioMatRx--provides tissue engineering products, equipment and information to the dental industry.
MRI Robotics--designs and tests medical equipment for use inside an MRI scanner.
NirvaMed--developing an organ-specific therapy-delivery technology platform for various clinical applications.
Clean Tech & Renewable Energy Division
EarthClean--commercializing an environmentally safe liquid that is exponentially more effective than water, Class-A Foams, and toxic retardants at stopping fires.
Silent Power--manufactures and markets easy-to-install, highly reliable, power inverters for the renewable energy and backup power markets.
Visiam--provider of processing technology that reduces the volume of municipal solid waste, dramatically increasing recycling rates and decreasing transportation costs.
General Division
Fresh EcoHarvest--developing a revolutionary greenhouse technology that allows growers to produce abundant, healthy food locally and in any climate with minimal environmental impact.
Fruchi--provides a line of nutritious, real fruit frozen smoothies.
Go Home Gorgeous--provides postpartum recovery treatments that have proven effective in decreasing the physical and emotional stress commonly associated with childbirth.
Student Division
Blue Water Ponds--provides environmentally-friendly services for restoring ponds through the use of barley straw and pond weed harvesting in an effort to control aquatic plants in the long term.
OncomiR--developing a data repository of microRNA expression profiles; this information is critical to the development of drugs for cancer treatment.
Power Trowel Solution Applicator--developing a device that allows a power trowel operator rather than a bystander to apply a chemical solution that slows the rate at which concrete dries.
Source: Matt Hilker, Minnesota Cup
Writer:
Dan Haugen