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Print Edition StoriesMonday, November 2, 2009
Nano-concrete idea cements win in MIT pitch contest
By Mass High Tech staff
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A materials sciences startup named Nanoengineered Concrete won MIT’s 2009 Elevator Pitch Contest late last week, besting 354 competitors in a contest that lasted three days.
Nanoengineered Concrete was an entry in the energy category. In total there were 12 finalists representing six different categories. The categories were energy, which was sponsored by Raytheon Co.; high-tech; life sciences; mobile technology; products and services; and social development.
The winning team gets $5,000 in seed money while the runner-ups will bring home $2,000 each. Each team had 60 seconds to deliver an elevator pitch that would impress the panel of judges. The contest, now in its third year, is open not only to MIT students, but neighboring colleges and Boston-area entrepreneurs as well.
Rouzbeh Shahsavari, a doctoral student from the MIT School of Engineering, is the founder of Nanoengineered Concrete. Shahsavari said that the team’s material not only could possibly reduce carbon dioxide emissions but can be made into a much stronger concrete than current types.
The two runner-ups were life sciences entry Team Calinix, which provides novel drug screening solutions, and products and services entry Apex by Hydrangle Systems, a biomedical device that hopes to eliminate potential impotence side effects when patients undergo prostate cancer cryoablation treatment.
According to MIT officials, Nanoengineered Concrete’s winning status also makes it a strong contender for this spring’s MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition and MIT Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Prize of $200,000. Last year’s Pitch Contest winner, Waleem Daher and his startup, K-Splice, went on to win the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition.
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