Media Coverage
- Journal & Courier of Lafayette, IN (8/26/07) - circulation of 110,000+
- Journal & Courier of Lafayette, IN (3/2/08) - circulation of 110,000+
- Journal & Courier of Lafayette, IN (4/9/08) - circulation of 110,000+
- Purdue Exponent (8/30/07) - circulation of 20,000+
- Purdue Exponent (1/24/08) - circulation of 20,000+
- Times-Mail of Lawrence County, IN - circulation of 13,000+
- WBAA public radio
- Purdue University News Service (8/9/07)
- Purdue University News Service (1/14/08)
- Purdue University News Service (3/26/08)
- Purdue University News Service (4/10/08)
- Purdue Online Writing Lab Newsletter (8/17/08) - circulation of 12,000+, interview with Daniel Scott Poynter, contest organizer
- Purdue Online Writing Lab Newsletter (9/3/08) - circulation of 12,000+, interview with Daryl Lim, contest winner
- Purdue Online Writing Lab Newsletter (3/7/08) - circulation of 12,000+
- The Indianapolis Star, IN (1/17/08) - circulation of 258,900+
WBAA public radio from Lafayette, Indiana
Click below to hear the public service announcement about the contest WBAA played on air for the first contest.
Journal & Courier newspaper of Lafayette, Indiana
- Third place was won by iPrivacy Manager, a computer program that allows people to decide how much of their personal information is made available on Facebook, MySpace and other social networks. The company received $8,000, plus $2,000 worth of in-kind services.
- Fourth place, worth $3,500, was awarded to Flocessor Microfluidic Technologies, which proposes to create programmable computer chips.
- Fifth place, and $1,500, was presented to GameSense, a Web-based program that provides videos of football games that can be reviewed by players and coaches at any location that has an Internet connection.
- Third place, and $5,000, was won by Unstoppable Learning, which proposes to create a video game that can help students study for ISTEP, SATs and other tests.
- P-Ride was awarded fourth place, and $2,500. The company is developing a battery-powered rollerblade/shoe that can reach a top speed of 12 mph and cover a 10-mile range before being recharged.
- Fifth place, and $1,000, went to Recruit-Cast, which proposed a business that offers video interviewing services that allows firms to reach and evaluate potential employees without paying the cost of travel and accommodations.
Serious ideas, serious money
April 9, 2008
With $100,000 worth of cash and in-kind services on the line, 10 teams of Purdue University students presented business ideas to a panel of judges Tuesday.
The 21st annual Burton D. Morgan Entrepreneurial Competition was divided into two divisions. Black teams included only undergraduate students. Gold teams were allowed to include nonstudent members.
SmArtan Inc., a company that is proposed as a software testing developer, took the top prize in the Gold division -- $40,000, plus $5,000 worth of legal and business advice from Ice Miller LLC, an Indianapolis company.
Second place in the division was awarded to Cytometry for Life, a company that is developing a low-cost, portable device that can be used to monitor the highly important blood lymphocyte levels in AIDS patients.
"The biggest resistance is acceptance of the new paradigm," team member Hildred Rochon said. "We need to convince people that this can complement what's already being made."
The not-for-profit company won $12,000, plus $3,000 of in-kind services.
Among other competitors in the Gold division:
EcoDisc, a company that is developing shooting discs which use soy-based material, took top honors in the Black division.
The soy material degrades quicker than current shooting discs and minimizes soil damage.
Last month, the firm won a $1,000 top prize in the second annual Elevator Pitch Competition, which also was held at the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship at Purdue's Discovery Park.
Tuesday's win was worth $20,000 in cash.
The $7,000 second place prize was won by Digital Literacy Contest, which creates programs that require participants to search a number of Internet sites for the answers.
"Libraries are failing to teach new skills. Information is exponentially increasing on the Web," said team leader Daniel Poynter. "This contest is a window through which librarians can see how students use the Web right now. They'll probably know about the next Google before the librarians."
Among other competitors in the Black division:
Journal & Courier newspaper of Lafayette, Indiana
Search this! Contest will test students' Web literacy (736 KB)
August 26, 2007
Students have known for years that sitting in front of the television with a laptop is preferable to trudging to the library and searching among the dusty shelves.
"Basically the Internet is something you can use from the comfort of your own home," said Ashwin Adhikari, a Purdue University junior majoring in math. "You can search something with one hand while you're eating with another."
But Daniel Poynter, a senior in philosophy at Purdue, wants to make sure his fellow students know that not everything on the Internet is "Googlable" or accurate. So he's holding a digital literacy contest Wednesday to put students' Internet searching skills to the test.
"In the information age, we need to be able to use the Internet effectively," Poynter said. "Without good Internet searching techniques, all that is beyond many people's reach."
The contest pits 70 students against each other to answer 100 questions in 30 minutes using only the Internet. Poynter said many of the answers will be difficult to find using only popular search engines.
Adhikari is participating because he relies on the Internet for much of his work and wants to see just how good he is at it.
"I want to put it to the test," he said. "Maybe get better at it."
Allen Brizee, coordinator of Purdue's Online Writing Lab, said the Internet is necessary for students these days, though he doesn't believe it will replace libraries. He said the two actually complement each other as libraries are compiling information on their Web sites for students to get starts on their research.
"It's really becoming one big network between the Online Writing Lab, Purdue Libraries and students' work," Brizee said.
Brizee said the biggest concern he has with the Internet, though, is that students believe everything the read. He said anyone can put false information on a Web site.
"It's hard for students to know the difference between hard, real information and hearsay," Brizee said.
Poynter's contest will include free pizza and refreshments for the 70 students who sign up and will be followed by a discussion about the future of the Internet and libraries.
Writer: Brian Wallheimer, bwallheimer@journalandcourier.com
Purdue Online Writing Lab Newsletter - interview with Daniel Scott Poynter, contest creator
August 17, 2007
By H. Allen Brizee, OWL Coordinator
A digital literacy competition is being held at Purdue University on August 29th. As digital literacy impacts writing and rhetoric in the 21st century, we thought that more information on this event would be of interest to our readers. We've interviewed Daniel Scott Poynter, a Purdue senior who is the guiding force behind the Digital Literacy Competition, to learn more.
Purdue OWL: Can you tell us the details of the contest?
This is a high speed battle of minds to find information online. It's like an open book Academic Decathlon, but with access to the entire Internet. The competition consists of 30 minutes to find the answers to 100 questions. Free pizza and refreshments are being served, thanks to Purdue Libraries. The competition takes place on Wednesday, Aug 29, 2007 at 6pm in Stanley Coulter 231 [Purdue University West Lafayette Campus]. Faculty, students and community members are welcome. The competition is open to the first 70 individuals who register at: www.digitalliteracycontest.org/register.html.
Purdue OWL: Where did you get the idea for the competition?
The contest has roots in my reading of Alvin Toffler's 1970 book Future Shock, Ray Kurzweil's work on the future of technology, Thomas Friedman's book The World is Flat as well as seeing the international business scene this summer in San Francisco. Change seems to be accelerating. This is the first time distance means basically nothing with regard to communication. This contest can be seen as one way to ease ourselves into a radically exciting and frightening future.
Purdue OWL: Why is digital literacy important?
As the 66.8 billion dollar television advertising industry collapses (thanks TiVo) and marketers look for more creative ways of capturing our attention through more insidious means (product placement) we will see more information providers stealthily mixing fact with opinion (to pitch products and politicians). The bigger issue is trust: is it wrong to trust Wikipedia over Britannica if Wikipedia is correct about most issues most of the time? What long-term effects will there be of being immersed in cyberspace and information providers like Wikipedia?
Purdue OWL: How do you see the digital literacy contest growing?
This first contest is a "proof of concept." We'd like to start a conversation about the future of knowledge with experts, academics, libraries, etc. If the contest is a success, it would be great to replicate it elsewhere. The open source model will be used to spread our findings and the rules of thumb which we've found to work. It would be fantastic for a community to emerge online to help evolve the contest.
Purdue OWL: Can you tell us more about your future plans?
I'm a senior at Purdue studying Philosophy. I may move to NYC and do consultancy work for higher education with regard to technology. I may also go to law school or graduate school. I'd like to pursue studies about technology and its wider implications in society, religion, identity, relationships, commerce, privacy, international relations and the future of human evolution.
Purdue Online Writing Lab Newsletter - interview with Daryl Lim, contest winner
September 3, 2007
By H. Allen Brizee, OWL Coordinator
Over seventy Purdue University students from a wide range of disciplines competed last night in the first Digital Information Literacy Contest, which was organized by Daniel Poynter, a Purdue senior in philosophy. The contest took place in two computer labs on Purdue's West Lafayette campus. Students used their computer research skills to answer questions from various fields, such as economics, geography, rhetoric, math, and pop culture. Contestants were given thirty minutes to answer correctly as many questions out of one hundred as possible.
The winner, Daryl Lim, a first year computer science major, received $50 and a Purdue Writing Lab t-shirt. Second place winner, Alex Porter, received $20, and third place winner, Peter Clay, won $10. Members of the OWL staff were pleased to help with the contest and partner with Purdue University Libraries in assisting with such a successful event.
After the contest, participants gathered for free pizza to discuss the event and its future, as well as topics ranging from online credibility and research to open source information exchange. Students were excited about the contest and provided good feedback for its organizers. The contest's guiding force, Daniel Poynter, concluded that the event was, "Better than I could have imagined." Another participant, Marvin Weniger, a Purdue senior in nuclear engineering, said, "It was a lot of fun."
The Purdue OWL News is pleased to present an interview with the Digital Information Literacy Contest winner, Daryl Lim:
Purdue OWL: How did you hear about the contest?
I was coming out of a class when I saw the flyer on a notice board. It looked like an interesting challenge so I decided to register and try my luck.
Purdue OWL: Why did you participate?
The information on the website gave me the idea that the contest was basically a information wild goose chase, only online. I've been using computers since I was eight or nine, so I wanted to see how badly that had honed my skills and addled my brain.
Purdue OWL: Did you find the questions difficult to answer?
Some of the questions asked for pretty obscure information from a specific webpage or academic journal. Ironically, those were the easiest to score points on because there was no room for ambiguity - if you find the site, you have the answer, no questions asked. I skipped over every question that would have taken me more than three or four seconds to read, though.
Purdue OWL: How do you think these sorts of research skills can help the 21st century student?
In our connected world, the modern student has access to more information than ever before. That doesn't automatically guarantee his ability to make use of that information meaningfully, though - it just means he has more information available to him. The skills of searching through large volumes of information and filtering out what isn't important or accurate will become increasingly essential.
Purdue OWL: How did you tell the difference between reliable and unreliable sources?
This is going to be a politically incorrect answer, It's not what it seems, though. On the Internet, every source is potentially unreliable because anyone could have put the information up without peer review. Information from the academic fields, which does undergo review, is usually to be found on sites that are not free to access and therefore not part of the information landscape that most people can see. The most efficient way to verify the accuracy of a piece of information online is to hit as many sources as possible and aggregate what they say - each site will give you a general idea of one issue and you can form your complete picture later.
Of course, this contest tried to encourage accuracy by deducting points for wrong answers, but I treated it this way: in the time it takes me to verify a previous answer, I could have answered one or two more questions and potentially gained more points.
Purdue OWL: Do you think this contest and discussion helped your research skills?
Certainly. It forced me to make split-second decisions on what I could accept as accurate information and how best to perform Internet searches while keeping the number of words typed into the search engine as few as possible. Efficient search techniques are in every Internet user's interest.
Of course, it certainly made me practice my speed typing!
Purdue OWL: What search techniques (engines, resources, browsers, etc.) did you use most?
I stayed on Google and Wikipedia most of the time. I had previously considered opening up academic paper search engines, but Google is faster and it has already begun to index many books and papers, allowing them to be searched through Google directly.
In terms of techniques, it was more about figuring out how few words you could type to find the information you needed. For example, one of the questions asked about the highest point in Rwanda. The fastest way to find that out would be to type "wiki rwanda" into Firefox, hit F3 to bring up the search box and type "high", and then look at the height for the highest point. If you need to convert units from meters to feet, Google can do that. Just type in "1000 meters in feet" in the search box and it will handle the rest.
Purdue OWL: Would you participate next year if the contest is offered?
Certainly. As long as you keep offering free pizza. :)
The Purdue Writing Lab and the OWL staff congratulate Daryl Lim for winning the first Digital Information Literacy Contest.
Times-Mail newspaper of Lawrence County, Indiana
Digital Detective - What is the Internet doing to research, reasoning skills?
October 3, 2007
Plato, in “Phaedrus,” said the writing of letters would cause people to trust “the external written characters and not remember of themselves.”
Now, more than 2,300 years later, a similar question is being posed about what tools of the digital age, like cell phones and the Internet, are doing to research skills and common-sense smarts.
Summer project
Purdue University senior Daniel Scott Poynter, a philosophy major, didn’t have a job over the summer. But that didn’t mean his brain wasn’t working.
After taking a trip to San Francisco, Poynter entertained the quandary of the quick-paced globalization of the business world.
“I wondered how Americans are going to stay competitive,” he said.
So, he created a competition to test intelligence.
“Not just intelligence,” he explained. “But Internet-enabled intelligence.
“For example, I don’t remember my friend’s cell phone numbers because I don’t have to — (they’re) in my cell phone. And I don’t really remember a lot of important things like I should because I can Google it and find it within two seconds.
“So, intelligence is changing and we need new ways to test it.”
And that’s what Poynter tried to do last month with a Digital Literacy Contest at Purdue, which was a competition of Internet research skills.
Fifty people competed in the 100-question session. Questions ranged from pinning down the height of a first-edition, hardback book to learning which couple married in the Rose Garden of the White House in 1971.
The winner, a freshman in Purdue’s college of science, answered 31 questions correctly in the allotted 30 minutes.
Digital literacy
While Poynter’s contest tested Web researching skills, many educators are trying to teach those skills.
“I would say when the students come in to do research, they are pretty much going online,” said Andrea Castrale, librarian at Mitchell High School.
So, she gives students a list of questions to ask themselves when searching for valid and credible information on the World Wide Web.
“We talk about, ‘Check your Web site before you start getting information from it,’” she said. “There are several different points to look at, like, ‘Does it have an author?’ ‘Is it biased?’ ‘Is it a government site or is it a dot-com site?’ ‘Look and see if there’s a date, if it’s been updated recently.’”
Bedford North Lawrence High School English teacher Brian Hawkins requires research for some projects, and usually requires students to use at least one non-digital source. But he’s far from discouraging using the Internet for research.
“We should be encouraging students to use the ’Net,” he wrote in an e-mail to the Times-Mail. “Of course, I would like to think that they can still find a magazine article or a book, too.”
Some advice
Hawkins and Castrale said deciphering information on the Internet takes practice.
“I think it’s a learning process, no matter what age you are,” Castrale said. “It’s like learning any other kind of skill — the more you do it, the better you are at filtering things through.”
Both offered warnings about using the peer-edited encyclopedia Wikipedia.
“Stay away from Wikipedia, except for fun,” Hawkins wrote. “It is a great site to use, and I do all of the time. But you have to take it for what it is — a place where anyone can post.”
He said he steers students toward sites ending in .edu and .org — which are often run by schools and nonprofits — and steers them away from .com and .net sites.
Writer: Carly Nation, cnation@tmnews.com
Purdue University News Service
Purdue Libraries assist student's online fact-finding contest
August 9, 2007
Purdue Libraries assist student's online fact-finding contest
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University senior is using a contest in which participants test their skills in gathering obscure information off the Internet to make the point that America's future depends upon our ability to mine the increasing amount of information online.
"We're already a service economy," said philosophy major Daniel Scott Poynter. "We're not competitive making widgets with our hands, and our white-collar jobs like accounting and programming can often be done for a tenth the price overseas. Our only hope of being competitive is sifting through the data deluge better than anyone else and creating value from mankind's best invention - the Web."
The pilot project - The Digital Information Literacy Contest: A Contest of Internet Research Skills and Critical Thinking - is scheduled for 6-7 p.m. Aug. 29 in Stanley Coulter Hall, Room 231. The event is free and open to the public to compete. Purdue University Libraries is providing free pizza and drinks, and the West Lafayette library is a sponsor. Cash and other prizes will be awarded to winners. This contest is a "proof of concept" - participants will have the opportunity afterwards to help develop the concept and be a part of the formative event.
Participants will be given 30 minutes, a seat at a computer and a list of questions to answer by searching online. For example, participants might be asked to find the address of where a business was located in 1965. Contestants will be penalized for incorrect answers, making a major part of the challenge the search for reliable information.
"There is so much information online, but what's opinion, fact or disinformation?" Poynter said. "This is one way to get people talking about sorting through the flood of information. And how do we test Internet-enabled individuals? Our generation has grown up immersed in cyberspace. This is already altering the human experience radically. We need both intellectually rounded and historically grounded training in processing information to be proactive shapers of the future."
The contest is open to the first 70 people who register online at http://www.DigitalLiteracyContest.org. Poynter also is seeking volunteers to help create questions and grade responses.
For more information, contact Poynter at (765) 425-6033, e-mail him at Daniel.Poynter@gmail.com or go online to http://www.DanielScottPoynter.com.
Writer: Jim Bush (765) 494-2077, jsbush@purdue.edu
Purdue Exponent newspaper
Competition exercises critical thinking, Internet navigation skills
August 30, 2007
On Wednesday, students from all over Purdue ripped open envelopes bursting with questions as they competed in the Digital Information Literacy Contest.
About 70 students signed up for the contest and had 30 minutes to answer 100 questions, which tested their Internet literacy. The three highest-scoring contestants received cash prizes. The main focus of the contest, held in Stanley Coulter Hall, was to use the Internet to find the answers, rather than test people's knowledge.
Daniel Poynter, a senior in the College of Liberal Arts and the main organizer of the event, said that there were two focuses, other than just testing a person's Internet research skills.
"Our first focus is that we need people to be thinking critically now, more than ever," Poynter said, "to stop people who don't have our interests from pitching products to us that we don't need."
The second focus, Poynter said, was to get people talking about the future of humanity, specifically with technology and computers.
The event was organized by Poynter with help from the Purdue Libraries, the West Lafayette Library, the Purdue Online Writing Lab and many more.
The questions that were submitted were mostly from librarians and others who had an interest in being involved in the contest.
After the time was up, all the contestants were ushered into a room in the Recitation Building, where free pizza and drinks were distributed alongside evaluation sheets on the contest. A discussion erupted between the contestants and Poynter, which included their opinions and feedback on the contest.
Poynter said the contest was a pilot and that from this experience they plan to find out new ways to improve it and make it better.
"We hope to grow, to try and make it more effective and fun," Poynter said.
Finally, the three contestants that scored the highest were announced. The highest score was a 31 out of 100 by Daryl Lim, a freshman in the College of Science, second place went to Alex Porter, a senior in College of Technology, and third place to Peter Clay, a sophomore in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. All three were excited about doing well.
"It was pretty fun and I was looking to challenge myself," Lim said. "I was prepared to hit Google as hard as possible."
Writer: Nadine Mahasneh
Purdue College of Liberal Arts Newsletter
Purdue University News Service
January 14, 2008
Contestants can put their digital information literacy to the test
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - People will put their ability to search for obscure information on the Internet to the test during a Jan. 23 contest at Purdue University.
The Digital Information Literacy Contest, created by senior philosophy major Daniel Poynter and supported by three Purdue entities and the West Lafayette Public Library, is free and open to the public to compete. It will take place from 6-7:30 p.m. in Stanley Coulter Hall, and competitors must register online.
The event is the second such contest Poynter has organized. At the first such contest in August, 50 contestants participated.
"This competition is one of the first high-speed battles of minds using the Internet as a cognitive prosthetic to amplify intelligence. It has three main objectives," Poynter said. "To identify people who thrive on information overload; to disseminate their insights; and to create a discussion about Purdue's role in shaping the future American knowledge worker."
A discussion on the third objective will follow the contest.
"Our age is both unprecedented and pivotal," Poynter said. "Unparalleled global access to information is accelerating technological and social change. Making sense of our increasingly complex world depends upon becoming better information filters. This competition is one way to ease ourselves into this exciting future."
Poynter said $700 in cash prizes will be split among contestants. In addition to the West Lafayette Public Library, Purdue's College of Technology and the James F. Ackerman Center for Democratic Citizenship in the College of Education, are co-sponsors. Purdue Libraries will provide food.
Contestants will be given 30 minutes, a seat at a computer and a list of questions to answer by searching online.
Those wanting to enter the contest must register online at http://www.DigitalLiteracyContest.org. Space is limited to the first 200 people. For more information, e-mail Poynter at Daniel.Poynter@gmail.com, call him at (765) 425-6033, or visit his Web site at http://www.danielscottpoynter.comWriter: Jim Bush (765) 494-2077, jsbush@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096, purduenews@purdue.edu
Purdue University News Service
- Uber Shelter, designed by Rafael Smith, was the top Purdue presentation in the environmental design category. The concept for a portable housing unit would help meet immediate shelter needs created by a catastrophic event. The shelter, which can be reassembled with just a few tools, provides victims with personal living space and can be collapsed for ease in transportation. It's also made from recyclable and reusable materials.
- Brian Smith, Chris Parmley and Amy Hoffman, working with Greater Lafayette Area Special Services-Preschool, was the top Purdue finisher in the service-learning category. This project focused on a mouse workshop, which is an Internet-based suite of computer software games to help preschoolers learn computer skills even if they can't yet read. The programs also help youngsters improve their fine-motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
- Daniel Poynter, working with The Digital Information Literacy Contest, advanced from Purdue's competition in the general entrepreneurship category. This project involves an Internet-based tool created to improve student interest in using library resources and provide libraries with feedback on how students search the Internet for information.
Product competition sends Purdue student-entrepreneurs to nationals
March 26, 2008
Product competition sends Purdue student-entrepreneurs to nationals
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Three student-led teams from Purdue University will compete with other universities at a national event April 5 to determine the best projects that link service-learning, the environment and entrepreneurship. The 2008 National Idea-to-Product Competition for Social Entrepreneurship takes place at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
"These Purdue students are passionate about their causes and are positioned to do well at the national competition," said Nancy Clement, interim director of the university's Social Entrepreneurship Initiative. "They've put a great deal of work into their projects and presentations. Regardless of how they finish, they're already winners for advancing to this next level."
The three Purdue teams, which advanced by winning a March 1 competition sponsored by Discovery Park's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship and the Center for the Environment, are:
Smith, a senior in industrial design at Purdue, said he's optimistic about his project heading into the national competition and has added civil engineering student Josh Messner to bolster the technical aspects of his team's presentation next month in Atlanta.
"Our goal is to create more than an emergency shelter," Smith said. "This concept is a shelter solution that meets the needs in the case of an emergency response but also provides victims with a personal place to live. I wanted to design a project that would impact people's lives."
Brent Ladd, program coordinator for learning and engagement at the Center for the Environment, said the regional I2P competitions are growing in popularity, boosting the quality of these projects and the understanding of how social entrepreneurship can impact college campuses.
"Entrepreneurship has become a key part of the education process at Purdue," Ladd said. "Social entrepreneurship takes that concept to the next level by encouraging student collaborations with nonprofit organizations and other groups to design viable, sustainable projects that may provide funding to meet the mission of these groups."
Others competing in the Purdue event included students Mike Raley, Lance Nelson, Eric Smith, Yuvraj Singh, Satkhozhina Aziz and Emily Wigley on a team working with the Speech Language Audiology Clinic; Vince PeGan and Derek Merek with their Recycle Knowledge project; and Rahul Bhutani, Ben Campbell, Aaron Conovaloff, Allison Conovaloff, Joshua Emory, Taylor Figg, Ebenezer Gnanamankickam, Josh Messner, Brad Milius, Jim Piersma and Aamod Samuel with their Sustainable Water Pump project.
In Purdue's 2007 Idea-to-Product Competition for Social Entrepreneurship, a team from the Lafayette Area Reading Academy took top honors. Greater Lafayette Area Special Services finished second last year and placed third nationally.
The national competition, which was last held at Purdue in 2005, returns to the West Lafayette, Ind., campus in 2009.
Purdue's Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, based in Discovery Park's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, is a program that provides a pathway for commercialization of products created by students for non-profit organizations addressing social needs.
Writer: Phillip Fiorini, (765) 496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu , Maggie Morris, (765) 494-2096
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096, purduenews@purdue.edu
Purdue University News Service
- Second place, $12,000 and $3,000 in legal and consulting services: Cytometry for Life, a company developing a low-cost diagnostic device for AIDS. Hildred Rochon and Lova Rakotomalala made the presentation.
- Third place, $8,000 and $2,000 in legal and consulting services: iPrivacy Manager, led by Arjmand Samuel and Robert M. Caswell in developing an online security service for social networking Internet sites.
- Fourth place, $3,500: Flocessor Microfluidic Technologies, a company developing a general-purpose, programmable microfluidic lab-on-a-chip device, led by Ahmed Amin and Han-Sheng Chuang.
- Fifth place, $1,500: GameSense, an Internet-based service for improving video training for sports teams, led by Jae Patrick Fadde.
- Second place, $7,000: Digital Information Literacy Contest, a concept led by Daniel Poynter, Amit Pahwa and John Bohlman that involves an Internet-based tool created to improve student interest in using library resources.
- Third place, $5,000: Unstoppable Learning, an educational software development company led by Andrew Evans, Travis Faas, Eric Biddle and Drew Allen.
- Fourth Place, $2,000: P-Ride, a motorized inline skate developer led by Karl Kreder, John Dill, Travis Brubaker and Dan Hursh.
- Fifth Place, $1,000: Recruit-Cast, a videoconferencing concept for prospective job applicants led by Jeff Carr and Darrin Hines.
Student-led teams take top honors at Purdue's entrepreneurship competition
April 10, 2008
Student-led teams take top honors at Purdue's entrepreneurship competition
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Student-led teams developing a program for testing software and an environmentally friendly biodegradable shooting target took the top prizes Tuesday (April 8) at the $100,000 Burton D. Morgan Entrepreneurial Competition at Purdue University.
Software developer SmartAn Inc. won the $40,000 top prize in the Gold Division. The team, led by Sirsha Chatterjee and Murali Krishna Ramanathan, also will receive legal and consulting services valued at $5,000 from Ice Miller LLC.
EcoDisc Inc., which includes undergraduate students A.J. Boeh, John Mullen, David Conway and Benn Hall, beat out four other finalists for the $20,000 top prize in the Black Division.
"The final presentations from both the undergraduate and graduate student teams were strong and highly competitive," said Kenneth Kahn, the Avrum and Joyce Gray Director of the Burton Morgan Center in Purdue's Discovery Park. "With their winnings from this well-established competition, the teams now can take their ideas, refine them and work to further realize their products, inventions and services."
The Gold Division, also known as the open category, includes non-student members if no more than 20 percent of the team is composed of non-Purdue personnel. Top three winners in this division also received free legal and consulting services from the event's associate sponsor, Ice Miller, an Indianapolis-based legal and business-advising firm.
In addition to SmartAn, Gold Division winners were:
Black Division teams included only undergraduate Purdue students, but could include a faculty adviser. Other division finishers at the 21st annual event were:
The annual competition started with 47 executive summary submissions describing innovative product and service offerings. Five undergraduate and five graduate student teams then were invited to make 30-minute presentations on their business plans Tuesday (April 8).
Judges for the competition were Carrie Bates, managing partner of Triathlon Medical Ventures in Indianapolis; Shane Fimbel of the Purdue Research Foundation; Chaz Giles, strategist and finance manager of Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati; Ken Green, founding partner of Spring Mill Venture Partners in Carmel, Ind.; G. Logan Jordan, associate dean of administration in Purdue's Krannert School of Management; Azin Lotfi, partner of Ice Miller; Jim Mellott of Northwest Interiors Corp. in Elkhart, Ind.; Steve Shade, managing director of Purdue's Center for Advanced Manufacturing; and Rob Theodorow of Stormfront Productions in Lafayette.
In 2007, advanced manufacturing technology device company M4 Sciences Corp., won the top prize in the competition's Gold Division, while onCurrent.com won the Black Division for its online calendar that promotes the local arts and music scene.
The Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship provides a platform to launch technology-based enterprises based on Purdue research and helps faculty, students and Indiana entrepreneurs better understand how to bring research and technology to market.
The Discovery Park center also leads Purdue's Kauffman Campuses Initiative for fostering entrepreneurship programs across campus. The national initiative emphasizes student entrepreneurial ideas and ventures, and makes entrepreneurship education available on campuses across the country.
Writer: Phillip Fiorini, (765) 496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096, purduenews@purdue.edu
The Indianapolis Star
Contest - Test your Web search savvy
January 17, 2008
A Purdue University student has unveiled a new competition to test contestants' power to scour the Internet for information.
The Digital Information Literacy Contest is free, and winners will share $700 in prizes. Contestants have 30 minutes to find the answers to a list of questions online.
The contest will be Jan. 23 at Purdue, and participants must register in advance at DigitalLiteracyContest.org. Space is limited to the first 200 people.
Journal & Courier newspaper of Lafayette, Indiana
Student competition turns out ideas to help nonprofits
March 2, 2008
Offering solutions to pressing social and environmental problems were the challenges placed before Ben Campbell and other young entrepreneurs who participated in a competition held at Purdue University on Saturday.
Campbell, a sophomore in plant breeding and genetics, was part of a 10-person team that presented a plan for a sustainable water pump to be used by Lifewater, a charity that works to provide third world countries with access to safe water, adequate sanitation and effective hygiene.
"We took our engineering skills to give Lifewater a pump that uses easily obtainable parts with no moveable parts below the ground," Campbell said. "The competition provided us with an opportunity to compete for funds, to further our research and to focus our efforts."
The idea-to-product competition, now in its fifth year, invites students to present an idea for a product that works in conjunction with the aims of a local, national or international nonprofit organization.
"We were impressed with the diversity of the ideas presented by the students," said Brent Ladd, a Learning and Engagement coordinator for Purdue's Center for the Environment, and facilitator of the competition. "Engineering students have been involved for the past four years. This is the first time we have gotten environmental students to think about solving problems entrepreneurally."
Six teams competed in both the social and environmental categories, presenting ideas for a product with a discussion of its viability to a panel of three judges who scored the entries based on a clear description of the technology and its status, opportunities to develop the project for the commercial market and the potential to protect the product's intellectual property.
The sustainable water pump came in third place in the environmental category, which was won by Rafael Smith's Uber Refugee Shelter.
Smith, a senior, presented a design for a reusable, two- refugee shelter that could be used by the United Nations to assist refugees during humanitarian crises.
The top three entries shared a $10,000 prize.
In the social category, Brian Smith, Amy Hoffman and Chris Parmley's GLASS-PS, a web based application that teaches children to be more familiar with computers, took first place. Daniel Poynter's Digital Literacy Competition came in second. Both will compete in Georgia.
Ladd said that the funds awarded to the competitors would help to take their designs to the next level.
"I think the students have learned some things they might not have known before and have, as a result, been able to take their idea further than they would have otherwise. The competition is not just about research, but a way of really getting their ideas implemented," he said.
Writer: Kevin Smith, ksmith@journalandcourier.com
Purdue Exponent newspaper
Popular event uses Internet to exercise minds
January 24, 2008
After a successful August trial run, the Digital Literacy Contest ran again with explosive results.
The August run consisted of 70 students, but on Wednesday about 200 students showed up at Stanley Coulter Hall to test their digital literacy skills.
Daniel Poynter, a senior in the College of Liberal Arts and organizer of the event, defined digital literacy as "the ability to leverage the Internet as a cognitive prosthetic."
Poynter explained by pointing out a graph of how efficiently animals get from place to place. Birds outperformed humans in terms of efficiency, but humans, when on a bicycle, outperformed birds.
"So the Internet is like a bicycle for the mind," he said. "But consider the fact that humans are already the most mentally advanced species."
Daryl Lim, a freshman in the College of Science and winner of the previous contest, said he prefers to see the competition as fun, as opposed to competitive.
When asked what he would do with the prize money if he won, Lim said, "I brought some friends this time, so I would treat them to dinner."
Writer: Nickolai Belakovski
Purdue Online Writing Lab Newsletter
Second Digital Literacy Contest Proves Successful
March 7, 2008
By H. Allen Brizee, OWL Coordinator
Daniel Poynter organized and hosted the second Digital Literacy Contest (DLC) on the West Lafayette campus of Purdue University on Wednesday, January 23, 2008. The event proved even more successful than the first contest held in August, 2007. Approximately 120 eager and web savvy participants filled four labs in Stanley Coulter Hall to test their Internet research skills against challenging questions on a wide range of topics.
At the end of the thirty-minute mental competition, Daryl Lim, winner of the first contest, emerged triumphant. Lim took home $100, while second place winner, Jignesh Vidyut Mehta, received $80, and third place participant, Matthew Williamson, won $60. Fourth place winners included a six-way tie between Dorina Mordkovich, Emily Cox, Nathan Claus, Peter Clay, Megan Mohler, and Jonathan R Morton. These participants each won $20.
Event organizers used multimedia in the contest labs to add to the cutting edge atmosphere. "We played a music video created by my friend John Bohlman to make the experience feel futuristic. It was a mashup of the entrancing movie Koyanisqaatsi and the mind bending Shpongle album 'Tales of the Inexpressible,'" Daniel Poynter said.
Poynter added that he believes "the music sped up competitors' minds, induced information overload, and approximated a future when minds merge with machines, knowledge flows at the speed of light, and disembodied psyches roam the n-dimensional information space limited only by their creativity."
When asked about the next step for the DLC, Daniel replied, "we're going to hold miniature contests and experiment with the structure. For example, instead of competitors searching for the answers to 75 questions why not compete to create a 500+ word muckraking journalistic piece? Or a fact supported futurecast? Or a polymathic blog post [examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5] in the spirit of Douglas Hofstadter's GEB? Maybe teams could compete. Or, maybe a combination of these and other approaches."
Daniel stated that a long term vision for the contest might expand significantly. "The contest could be an umbrella concept for all contests seeking to test 'Internet-augmented intelligence' with their own home brew arbitrary restrictions. The whole thing could be given a Creative Commons license, and an open source community could imagine and host versions of the contest around the world."
He added that "Versions would undergo natural selection. McLuhan said our electronic infrastructure is the externalization of our nervous systems. Over time this whole community will create approximations of the original vision: a competition of cognitive agility using the Internet as a mental prosthetic."
Regardless of the DLC's future, I can say that having attended both contests, the events are huge fun, and they are educational. Any time you can combine fun and learning, the outcomes are sure to be exciting. The OWL will announce future DLCs.