BIG Pitch Collegiate Competition Awards $10,000 to Innovative MIT Team — Ocean Exchange

Pipeguard Robotics, a student-led innovative solution from MIT, won the $10,000 BIG Pitch Award for a soft body robot with special sensors that will detect leaks inside pipes.

 

 

BIG Pitch Winners w/ Dr. Allen Amason of Georgia Southern University.

BIG Pitch Winners w/ Dr. Allen Amason of Georgia Southern University.

 

SAVANNAH, Ga.Oct. 16, 2017PRLog — The seventh annual Ocean Exchange, hosted last week in Savannah, GA, featured the third year of the BIG Pitch Award, sponsored by Georgia Southern University, College of Business Administration, Business Innovation Group.

The winner of the 2017 BIG Pitch Award in the amount of $10,000 USD is Pipeguard Robotics by a team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Pipeguard Robotics solution inspects water pipes from the inside using innovations in sensor membranes and the soft body drone to find leaks long before they become catastrophic, with the objective to reduce the 20% of clean water production daily lost to leaks.

Dr. Allen Amason, Dean of the College of Business Administration at Georgia Southern University commented after the award was announced.  “It’s an elegant and practical solution to a vexing and widespread problem.  I salute Pipeguard Robotics for their innovation and their hard work; they are going to save their clients a lot of fresh water, as well as a lot of money.  I also salute the Ocean Exchange and all the participants in this year’s event.  We are happy to be involved.”

In addition to the winning grant recipient, seven additional collegiate innovators presented sustainable solutions to a distinguished group of conference guests representing business and industry, entrepreneurs, academia, government, and NGOs. Schools represented in the finalist round were from Arizona State, Columbia, Cornell, MIT, Oregon State, Rutgers, and University of Texas-Austin with solutions for precision agriculture, risk management for hydrology, waste heat to energy, water conservation in power generation, wind energy, and energy storage.

About Ocean Exchange

Each year, the Ocean Exchange seeks innovative, proactive wfv and globally scalable sustainable solutions with working prototypes and applications that can cross industries, economies and cultures, in a competitive process in which two $100,000 and one $10,000 awards are granted to early stage companies.

About Georgia Southern University Business Innovation Group

The Business Innovation Group (BIG) at Georgia Southern University, located in downtown Statesboro, GA, is the business outreach arm of the university, committed to developing a vibrant entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem for the southeast region. BIG provides resources for students and entrepreneurs to gain skills and training necessary to understand business principles, experience how businesses operate, and successfully launch new enterprises.

Georgia Southern University, a public Carnegie Doctoral/Research University founded in 1906, offers 118 degree programs serving 20,673 students. Through eight colleges, the University offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs built on more than a century of academic achievement. Georgia Southern is recognized for its student-centered and hands-on approach to education. Visit GeorgiaSouthern.edu.

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