Eight Colorado Springs businesses and nonprofits vying for cash and access to student smarts

Eight Colorado Springs businesses and nonprofits have been selected to work with teams of University of Colorado at Colorado Springs students to develop new products, markets or business models in a competition to win $40,000.

Student teams will be assigned  next week to each of the eight organizations and will develop the plans with their managers during the next three months, said Michael Larson, the El Pomar chair of engineering and innovation at UCCS. He is one of three such faculty members who helped put together what they hope will become an annual competition to promote innovation and revitalization in local firms, the EPICC Business Revitalization and Innovation Competition. The plans will be presented to a panel of judges Feb. 15 to compete for one of three cash prizes to be awarded March 1.

The competition is part of UCCS Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak’s Southern Colorado Innovation Strategy, which is  looking for ways the university can partner with the community to spur innovation and economic development, Larson said. “This is a unusual competition because in most business plan competitions, the projects that don’t win go nowhere and nothing comes of the effort put into them. In this case, even the plans that aren’t funded still will benefit from the work of student teams.”

One company, Access 2 Sign Language Inc., hopes to use its student team to develop a way to do remote sign language interpreting for the deaf and hard of hearing in emergencies or in far-flung locations, using Web cams and the Internet, said Stephanie Hernandez, company president.

The competition is the first major initiative by the El Pomar Institute for Innovation and Commercialization since the Colorado Institute for Technology Transfer and Implementation changed its name last year to reflect a new mission to promote innovation.

CITTI was created in 1990 with three endowed chairs funded by $3.1 million from the El Pomar Foundation and $1.5 million from UCCS to help local entrepreneurs turn their technology ideas and research completed at UCCS into viable commercial products.

Thirteen UCCS students from the business, engineering and other schools have volunteered to be part of the teams, and the college is seeking at least 11 others, Larson said.

The eight companies and nonprofits are completing videos that will be uploaded onto a Web site that will allow the students to learn  more about the eight organizations and how they want to use students, so the students can choose which team they want to join, he said.

The $40,000 prize comes from savings generated from one of the three chairs being vacant for a year; the institute hopes to find sponsors for the competition in future years, Larson said. The eight companies were selected from 26 applicants by the institute’s nine-member advisory board.

FINALISTS FOR EPIIC BUSINESS REVITALIZATION AND INNOVATION COMPETITION

• Access 2 Sign Language Inc., which provides online sign language interpreting services by video.

• Aspire Biotech Inc., a research and development company focused on improving medical devices through the development of biomaterials.

• Cartridge World USA, a local franchise specializing in refilling and remanufacturing ink and toner cartridges for printers, copiers and fax machines.

• Done Rite Inc., a local franchise of Winzer Corp., which manufactures fasteners.

• Hondac Auto Inc., which specializes in servicing Acura, Honda and Subaru vehicles.

• Intelligent Software Solutions Inc., a Springs-based software company that primarily develops and sells specialized software used by the military.

• Partners in Housing, which helps homeless families with children gain self-sufficiency through supportive services and transitional housing.

• Virtual 360 Studios, which creates interactive online virtual tours of businesses.finalists for epiic business revitalization and innovation competition