Beacom School of Business i2i Competition Brings in 26 College, High School Students
The i2i competition is a “Shark Tank” style challenge where South Dakota college and high school students present their business ideas to a panel of eight judges and a live crowd. The event was organized by Chelsea Limoges, industry engagement coordinator, and Gregory Bertsch, Ph.D., instructor of entrepreneurship and innovation.
This year’s event also included guest speaker Chris Cyr, chief technology officer at Sterling. Cyr has over 28 years of experience working in technology. His role at Sterling includes providing leadership and guidance to the organization’s goal to continue to provide value to its customers in the technology industry.
The competition was divided into three tracks: a high school track and two university tracks. The top three placing teams of each track received a monetary award.
The top placing teams include the following.
High School Track
- First place – Ian Grinager and Jakob Thompson, “Your Neighbors Trailer,” Colman High School
University Track I
- First place – Andrew Bernston, Azam Shaik, Harley Tran, Henry Sule and Soobin Rho, “PermaThreads,” Augustana University
- Second place – Duncan Yungtum, “Cutting Edge,” USD
- Third place – Marc Niamba, Shania Rehmudin and Zishen Yang, “GreenLight Bionics,” USD – Sioux Falls
University Track II
- First place – Bharathkiran Maddipudi and Khang Huynh, “Bio-Navitas,” South Dakota School of Mines
- Second place – Megan McCray, “Human It,” USD
- Third place – Trevor Sinclair, “Voting Booth,” USD
