The first competitive round of the Randall Family Big Idea Competition took place on February 22nd, 2019. Throughout the course of the day, judges heard big ideas from over one-hundred teams and three-hundred Pitt students.
The pitches presented that day ranged from social innovation work, including sustainability campaigns and civic awareness projects, to medical devices from all areas of practice. During their thirteen-minute window in front of the judges, teams were given time to show off their work as well as engage with industry professionals during a formal question and answer session. By the end of the day, the field would need to be narrowed down to fifty teams who would go on to present at the end of March in pursuit of the $25,000 grand prize.
The Big Idea Center entrepreneurs in residence (EIR for short) were in attendance as well to guide the conversation in each presentation room. Don Morrison, EIR, had this to say about the competition, “Overall, this year, the team quality was higher than in previous years. All of the judges commented on that. The EIRs had the same sense after the practice pitches last week. I think the competition gets better every year.” Joanna Sutton, EIR, also added, “The energy in our room was really high. The teams were great. Everybody loves the diversity of the Randall Family Big Idea Competition. We saw everything from dating applications to medical devices.
Excitement was high on the fifth floor of Alumni Hall as teams came and went over the course of a five-hour period. At one point, there was even a puppy. During a presentation on pet bathroom training, a team required the assistance of a visual aid. We are happy to report that no animals or carpets were harmed in the making of this competition.
One group that was eager to present was team Energize who were working on a caffeinated eye-drop product. Kyle Guinness, also a member of team Pocket Profits, had this to say about his experience, “I am big into sales. I love selling and have been pitching for quite a while. We always like to add some theatrics to our pitches to kind of get the judges laughing because they are in there for hours and hours. It helps to stand out. Overall, the competition has been run extremely well. It has been a lot of fun. Obviously, there is a lot of money on the line, so it will be competitive, but that is what it is all about.”
Garrett Coyan, a cardiothoracic surgical resident at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, was a part of three teams (all three of which continued on to the final round of the competition). “Today I was working with three excellent teams. All three pitches went, what I thought to be, very well. We had some great ! & A from the judges. We are really excited to tackle all three problems in heart valve disease therapies, medical documentation, as well as plural infusions. All three are very important things to me as a surgeon and a clinician as well as to most people who interact with these as patients. We are really excited about how things went today,” Coyan said after finishing for the day.
Babs Carryer, director of the Big Idea Center, was thrilled with how each team performed. She said, “It is just super exciting because these are students. They’re everybody from freshmen all the way to post-doctorate. We have a couple of medical students. We’ve got medical residents. We’ve got law school students. We’ve got business students. We’ve got computer engineers. We’ve got mechanical engineers. We’ve got people from theater arts! It’s an amazing competition; very cross-disciplinary with students of all levels. Their big ideas are really awesome. Some of them want to change the world, some want to change Pittsburgh.”
Overall, the semi-final round of the Randall Family Big Idea Competition was a huge success. All teams received valuable feedback from the judges that they could continue to refer back to throughout the remainder of the competition and beyond. While not every team could move on, the educational opportunities associated with this type of interactive competition are endless. All teams will continue to grow and evolve as we move into the 2019-2020 academic year. We may even see some of them again at the 2020 competition. Who knows?