ECE startups thrive at Cozad New Venture Showcase event

On April 10, 2019, multiple ECE ILLINOIS student-led startups including Daniat, Kodeblue, and RoboRef won prizes at the Cozad New Venture Challenge Showcase and Finals event. The agricultural tech startup Daniat won the $5,000 Edwin Moore Family Agriculture Innovation Prize. Daniat was the only AgTech startup in the entire program out of over 60 student-led startup teams at the Showcase and Finals event. 

The Edwin Moore Family Agriculture Innovation Prize honors the legacy of Edwin E. Moore (1924) who graduated from the College of Agriculture at the University of Illinois and began farming in Will County. Daniat also won access to the TechNexus Incubator space and resources for twelve months in Chicago, which includes work and meeting space, and access to the community of entrepreneurs and mentors growing there.

ECE startup Kodeblue was the recipient of the Illinois Business Consulting (IBC) prize. Kodeblue is an intuitive product that teaches children the fundamentals of programming and won the management consulting services for the fall of 2019 semester to support market entry and customer discovery.

RoboRef won incubation space and resources from EnterpriseWorks for 12 months which includes a student shared office and/or lab space and counsel from the Entrepreneurs-in-Residence. RoboRef is a mobile application to automate the scoring of friendly ping-pong matches.