Winch of the future wins UTSA entrepreneurship competition

(April 25, 2018) -- Winch-Men, a student team that created a vehicle-mounted winch that won’t fray, bunch up or cause other common winch problems, won the top prize at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) $100K Student Technology Venture Competition. The challenge was sponsored by the UTSA Center for Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CITE).

The team was formed by UTSA students Kris Carlton, Yanni Routsas, Marcus Haraway and Caleb Lansdale. They found that in Texas, arguably the pick-up truck capital of the world, vehicle-mounted winches usually consist of a spool of wire rope and a crank, often used to dislodge vehicles stuck in mud or other hazards. However, the devices are rarely built to last and frequently frustrate, and sometimes even endanger, their owners by tangling, fraying and even snapping. The team created a new system that utilizes a level wind-guidance system to ensure the cable is properly retrieved and spooled, preventing the common issues owners face. The team’s mentor was Perry Denning, CEO of Universal Semiconductor Technologies, Inc.

Winch-Men was awarded $53,000 in cash and in-kind services to jump-start their company.

The second prize went to VertiPro, formed by UTSA students Delano Covarrubias, Alexander Paul, Hayden Rosas and Cynthia Perez. The team presented a mobile application to alleviate the symptoms of vertigo by guiding sufferers through stabilization exercises. Their mentor was Samar Shah, Founder and CEO of Shah IP Law, PLLC.

Third place was awarded to GANA Biomedical Solutions, formed by UTSA students Alejandra Barraza, Natalya Casas, Alejandro Morales Betancourt, Graciela Hernandez, David Gill and Ivan Martinez. The team’s mentor was Rick Morris, founder and CEO of GaitIQ, and Daniel Nicolella, institute engineer at Southwest Research Institute. The students created an assistive device that improves knee rehabilitation by increasing patient engagement and interaction for a prime therapy experience.

The panel of judges reviewed each team's product in a morning symposium where business and engineering students presented their senior design projects. In the afternoon the five competing teams presented their product-to-market strategy in a five-minute pitch.

Established in 2007 and held annually, the $100K Student Technology Venture Competition offers UTSA undergraduates in business, science and engineering with the top-tier opportunity to build a technology, patent it, create a business around it and launch it in a rigorous incubator program. The top three teams have access to a prize pool of more than $100,000 in funding and in-kind services to launch their new companies.

Since the competition's inception, two winning teams from previous competitions, Leto Solutions and Invictus Medical, have demonstrated steady progress toward commercializing their products. A previous winner, InfraVein, has since received a $50,000 NSF grant to commercialize their product.

— Joanna Carver

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