We would like to extend a big congratulations to the AlpineAid and eLuminate teams for making it to the finals of the 2022 Mayo Business Plan Competition! The winning team will be awarded $30,000 with the second and third place teams winning $20,000 and $10,000 respectively. To read more about the engineering teams and their project goals, click here to review our story from the semi-finals. We asked the finalist teams for more details about how they came together and how they came up with their project idea.
The AlpineAid team was originally formed as a mechanical engineering senior project entitled Ski and Snowboard Training System. Jameson Dugan, Daniel Kelly and Haoyu Ji were selected by project advisor Professor Bijan Sepahpour and tasked with redesigning and enhancing a revived senior project from the past. After a successful semester of completely re-engineering the system, the team realized the potential for retail success and decided to pursue the Mayo Business Plan Competition (MBPC) for development and funding. Prof. Sepahpour invited junior Engineering Management major Tim Albano to the team to lead the development of the business plan. The team has enjoyed seeing the product and company plan evolve as they progress through the MBPC and senior project phases. The creativity, dedication, and experience of the current team has helped bring the idea to life. All four members of the team are avid snow sport enthusiasts with a combined 30+ years of experience on the slopes. Each team member has strong knowledge of the motions associated with skiing and snowboarding which, partnered with equally strong technical engineering knowledge, led to the creation of completely original mechanisms to train skiers and snowboarders. The team saw that the device filled the need for a realistic land training system in the ski industry and has worked to develop an effective business model that supports the product.
The eLuminate team began as a senior project team formed late junior year as Andrew Majowicz, Bryce Bishop, and Jack Tomkiel are all friends sharing the same classes in the Computer Engineering department. Chris Coniglio, the team’s Business major, is a close friend of Andrew Majowicz. Having a strong work ethic that aligned with the team, as well as being a small business owner himself, Coniglio was the perfect addition to finalize the Mayo Business Plan team. After reviewing a list of project ideas, the one that stood out to the group was an “interesting vanity light.” The team chose this concept as a baseline and did constant iterations, getting creative with ideas and designs until they reached their current model. The team saw the potential for this project to be an actual product and decided to enter into the Mayo Business Plan Competition.
We wish all teams success in the final round!
– Anisa Lateef ‘22
If you are an engineering student and did something awesome you want us to know about, email us at: soengweb@tcnj.edu.