Cal State Long Beach students Ryan Beck and Matt Martin won a $10,000 prize in the second annual Innovation Challenge on Tuesday.
The College of Engineering and the College of Business Administration hosted the contest at the Pointe Conference Center in the Walter Pyramid, where four teams competed.
Beck and Martin created the company GlydeTech, with a product that makes it easier to slide doors and windows of any size, using magnetic gliding technology.
“It will revolutionize the way we live,” Martin said, as he presented the product before the panel of judges.
The Innovation Challenge gives students the opportunity to be creative and acquire business skills in a competitive environment.
In addition to the cash prize, the winning team also receives assistance and funding from the sponsors of the competition for one year.
“We entered the innovation challenge because it gave us the opportunity to make our product a reality,” Martin said. “It also seemed like it would be a lot of fun.”
Martin, who has always wanted to own his own company, said that even if he didn’t win the competition, he still would have been happy with the experience.
The judging for this competition was based on the content of the written proposal, business plan and formal presentation. Out of 21 student groups who registered, 13 submitted business plans in time to enter the competition.
“In the future, we would like to see more business plans from more colleges,” said Michael Solt, dean of the College of Business Administration.
Competitors Jeanne Agcaoili and Alexander Santamaria created Textbookhouse, a website that connects college students to buy, trade and sell their textbooks locally to avoid shipping fees.
“I didn’t think that I would do it but as the final day came up I ended up just sending in a letter of intent and slowly started doing it,” Santamaria said. “It wasn’t something that was really preconceived.”
Santamaria still plans on seeking funding to launch Textbookhouse by the end of the summer and plans to keep in contact with his team mentor.
The Mobile Mohs Machine Co. was led by Khristine Pugeda Paustell and Cody Paustell.
Also competing were Andrew Esguerra, Staci Korff, Rawan Sawalha and Jasper Zheng who created Goenzip.
Their project focused on dialysis patient apparel and created a clothing line that would make it easier for nurse practitioners to access a patient’s bloodstream through a zipper on the garment.