Students Win Burrill Competition
With Plan for Drug Delivery Device

April 15, 2005

MADISON, WIApril 15, 2005--First prize of $10,000 in the UW-Madisons G. Steven Burrill Technology Business Plan Competition Friday was awarded to a company called Ratio, created by a team of business and science students. Anthony Escarcega is an MBA student in entrepreneurship.and his partner John Puccinelli is a graduate student in biomedical engineering. The two wrote the winning plan for the already-patented device that can deliver large-molecule drugs to patients.

Second place went to FireSite, a team whose business plan centered on a device for helping firefighters to escape from burning buildings. FireSites team consisted of Brian Burke, a sophomore in finance, Chandler Nault, a senior in mechanical engineering, Mitch Nick, a sophomore in industrial engineering, and Nick OBrien, who is majoring in chemical engineering and theater. This team recently took first prize of $10,000 in the College of Engineering Schoofs Prize competition.

Third place went to Clean Well, a new idea incorporating a hepa filter into well caps to keep out airborne pathogens. The team presenting this idea consisted of James Lynnett, a masters student in business, and Dan Gerdman, who is studying for his MBA in entrepreneurship.

Fourth prize went to a company called Microfend that offers anti-bacterial custom treatment for fabrics for special markets including hotels and hospitals. The team for this business was Alfredo Armengol and Paul Pucci, who are studying entrepreneurship and Jay Deivasigamani, a graduate student in textile engineering.

Fourteen teams of 42 students joined this years all-day competition. In total, UW-Madison students walked away with $22,000 in prize money at the business plan competition Friday. Teams from disciplines across campus presented their business plans to a panel of expert judges Friday morning at the business schools Grainger Hall. Business. Concepts ranged from on-line grocery services to creating and selling the services of creative students for brain-storming sessions. The idea of the competition is always to encourage the students to take their ideas and make them concrete enough to be marketable, said Professor Anne Miner, who has directed the competition since its inception.

Miner said this years competitors represented a wide range of students with an even wider range of ideas. There are more business ideas on this campus than anyone could imagine. We certainly have some incredibly creative minds at work.

The G. Steven Burrill competition is supported by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Initiative for Studies in Technology Entrepreneurship (INSITE), the School of Business, the College of Engineering and the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. In the School of Business, the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship and the Erdman Center for Operations and Technology Management collaborate to produce the competition. Major funding is provided by G. Steven Burrill, a 1966 graduate of the School of Business. Burrill made a surprise visit to the pre-event dinner Thursday night to offer students feedback on their business ideas.