(May 2, 2019) -- The enVault team, the group of UTSA engineering students behind the Vault-O power generator, won big this week at the $100k Student Technology Venture Competition hosted by the Center for Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CITE). The UTSA engineering majors beat out nearly 70 competitors to take the top prize for their Vault-O generator, a next-generation plug-and-play technology that aims to help reduce carbon emissions and operating costs for businesses owners.
The first-place enVault team includes UTSA engineering students Noah Bemisderfer, Robert Chavez, Nestor Falcon, Bobby Reyes and Jack Williams.
The UTSA students were sponsored by local entrepreneur Matthew Herrera, the owner of Go Pawz Go, a leader in the dog grooming space. After learning about his mobile business, they were inspired to reduce his operating expenses.
Noah Bemisderfer and Nestor Falcon stand beside the Vault-O battery-powered mobile generator.
enVault estimates that its Vault-O generator will only cost mobile operators like Herrera about $100 dollars to run. The power generator operates without diesel and gasoline and is powered through the use of advanced battery inverter technology. With the invention, Herrera can take his mobile unit directly to dog owners for longer periods at a lower cost.
The UTSA Center for Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CITE) hosts two competitions each year to give students hands-on experience in entrepreneurship and pitching for first-round funding. CITE is a collaborative center in the UTSA College of Business and UTSA College of Engineering that aims to create a pipeline for San Antonio’s ecosystem in new technology ventures. Finalists of the competition have access to a prize pool of more than $100,000 in funding and in-kind services to launch their new companies.
This year, competitors presented to a panel of industry leaders and start-up incubators including Lockheed Martin, Alamo Angels, Velocity TX, Active Capital, Targeted Technology and Geekdom. To prepare for the competition, CITE pairs the competing teams with industry advisors including CPS, UT Health and Brooke Army Medical Center to ensure successful market launches.
Second place in the CITE competition went to the biomedical engineering group C-CAM for its laryngoscope device to help first responders with intubation. JNST took third place for its cooling portable prosthetic socket which helps amputees protect residual limbs on demand.
Running alongside the CITE competition, other engineering teams competed in the Tech Symposium, a competitive program where teams present their senior capstone projects to win up to $12K in cash prices. This year, the top winner was the Daedalus Group with its automatic weapon detection system. In close second, Zometis Innovations, an all-female team, captured attention with its prototyped microbiome pill, which can be used to diagnosed the health of the stomach and intestinal tract.
Learn more about CITE.
Learn more about TECH Symposium.
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UTSA invites you to participate in our community altar by RSVP to this event. You can also use this link to learn more about Día de Los Muertos:https://anendlessconnection.weebly.com/the-project.html.
Student Union Window Lounge, Main CampusOctober 28th celebrates National Immigrants Day. On this day, we gather to explore the diverse heritage of our nation’s social fabric. We dedicate this day to understanding how our nation was founded and built by immigrants. Our goal is for the UTSA family to recognize and celebrate how all immigrants, regardless of their citizenship status, contribute to our community through their resiliency and ingenuity.
Multicultural Student Lounge, HSU 2.207, Main CampusThe COLFA Advanced Career Pathways Workshops are focused on connecting your education with your career aspirations and exploring your pathways to reach your goal.
Mesquite Room, Student Union, 2.01.24, Main CampusThe Westside Community Center will be creating an altar or "ofrenda" as many do within San Antonio and the Westside for "Dia de los Muertos." If you would like to participate, we invite you to send in a photo of a loved one that will be placed in this space. You are welcome to join us on October 28th at 3:00 pm to set up the space and come see us at the Westside Community Center.
UTSA Westside Community Center, 1310 Guadalupe St., San Antonio, TX 78207Blueprints For Pangaea is hosting its first on-campus inventory event of the semester! Join us for a Halloween-themed afternoon where we'll inventory medical supplies while enjoying Halloween movies. By the end of the event, you will have positively impacted the health of hundreds of individuals. We require at least one hour of attendance and come dressed up because the best costumes will earn awards.
Flawn Sciences Building, 3.02.02, Main CampusChris Villanueva and other jazz faculty will perform standards in this concert. More details to come. The Fall 2021 concert schedule is subject to change. Please continue to monitor our website and social media for updates. This concert will be live-streamed via the UTSA Music Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/UTSAMusic When:
UTSA Recital Hall, Main CampusUTSA Sustainability will have three courses of varying difficulty to accommodate different ages and abilities. There will a one mile walk on generally level surface to introduce you to the student run community garden, a longer walk with stairs and topo changes, and a five mile bike ride to introduce you to the Leon Greenway.
Tito Bradshaw Bicycle Repair Shop Ximenes Ave, Main CampusThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education.
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to ending generations of discrimination and inequity. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.
