64816news12995775171475896102<![CDATA[Successful Entrepreneurs Selected as InVenture Prize Judges]]>
Winners
of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s InVenture Prize will be selected by a
panel of judges who are very familiar with entrepreneurship and marketing their
own inventions.
The
InVenture Prize is an innovation competition for Georgia Tech undergraduate
students who work independently or in teams to create inventions. Seven
finalists have been selected to compete for $35,000 in prize money and free
U.S. patent filings. Students will present their inventions during a live
Georgia Public Broadcasting program televised from the Georgia Institute of
Technology’s Robert Ferst Center for the Arts on March 9 at 7 p.m.
The
2011 InVenture Prize judges are:
Sara Blakely, founder and owner of Atlanta-based SPANX,
invented footless pantyhose after researching trademarks and patents at
the Georgia Tech Library. Since 1998, she has created more than 200
problem-solving products. Blakely has been named Ernst &
Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year and Georgia’s “Woman of the Year.”
Deborah Kilpatrick is senior vice president at California-based
CardioDx, a privately held genomic medicine company focused on
cardiovascular disease. At Georgia Tech, Kilpatrick serves on several
advisory boards and was named to the Council of Outstanding Young
Alumni. She holds multiple U.S.
patents and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech.
Greg Foster is founder and CEO of
BrightWhistle, a marketing software company in Atlanta and an
entrepreneur-in-residence with Chrysalis Ventures. Foster is a member of
the Board of Trustees for the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, the Georgia
Council on Economic Education and the Bobby Dodd Foundation. He holds a B.S.
in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Harvard
Business School.
David Phelps has served as president and
CEO of Kentucky-based CreoSalus, a peptide science company, since 2002. For
more than 25 years, his career has included significant management roles
with large life science (medical device, drug and bio-tech) companies. He
has developed more than 50 medical devices and has more than 25 patents
issued or pending.
Returning
as the InVenture Prize co-hosts are Miles O’Brien, an award-winning 27-year
broadcast news veteran specializing in aviation, space, science, the
environment and technology; and Bahereh Azizi, a researcher and support manager in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Free
tickets to the InVenture Prize broadcast are available at http://inventureprize.gatech.edu/tickets. In addition to airing on
Georgia Public Broadcasting, the 2011 Georgia Tech InVenture Prize competition
will be streamed online at www.gpb.org.