(B) I went yesterday to Stanford University’s BASES (Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students) for their 150k Challenge. And, I had a blast! One of my favorite moments was when I met a very humble student from the Electrical Engineering School who developed a control system which monitors the daily growth of the plants and accordingly changes some of their environment parameters such as light and temperature.

But first for those who are reading this blog far away from Silicon Valley, what is BASES? Well…

“BASES is at the heart of student entrepreneurship at Stanford, as one of the most established and well-known student-run entrepreneurship organizations in the world. Our mission is to promote entrepreneurship education at Stanford University and to empower the next generation of brilliant entrepreneurs. We work with budding entrepreneurs, exceptional students, and prominent professors and investors in order to unite the worlds of entrepreneurship, academia, and industry.”

Yesterday, BASES has its 150k challenge where many new Stanford incubated ideas were competing to receive a check from the $150,000 budget allocated to the event. There were a few facts that surprised me during the day.

First, I love to go to this kind of events, and what surprised me at the BASES 150K Challenge was the high quality of the product concepts displayed. I would say that in a lot of start-up competition events, they are more “not-so-good” ideas than “good” ones but at BASES, it is definitely the reverse, and the proportion of “good” is definitely high.

Two hypotheses to explain that: maybe because many ideas are the fruit of a lot of hours of Ph.D. research, and a lot of innovation is established into the product; or simply because it is easy to build some unique intellectual property in a world-class university by aggregating different minds from different schools with unique expertise. Let’s not forget that innovation grows well in crowded smart areas.

Second, I was surprised to see so many health-care ventures. It looks like every student at the Medical School wants to be an entrepreneur.

Third, I saw a lot of clean-tech ventures while VCs in Silicon Valley has given up on investing in clean-tech since ROIs have not been so depressing in the last few years.

Fourth, all teams seem to have a good mix of both technical and business students.

Fifth, Stanford is really about open-source. Many teams included students from Berkeley and other local schools even UCLA!

The event had three programs: an E-Challenge, for non-profit start-ups; a Social-E Challenge for start-ups looking to have a social or environmental impact; and a Product Showcase which had 50 product demos! Incredible!

Following were the winners – all of them are worth spending some time studying…

E-Challenge Winners:
1st place, $25,000: AWAIR
AWAIR is a medical device company that develops patient-centered airway products for the intensive care unit.

2nd place, $12,500: Resido Medical
Resido Medical is developing Serenity, a medical device that reduces hand tremor in patients suffering from Essential Tremor.

3rd place, $7,500: CinderBio
CinderBio technologies have the potential to make cellulosic biomass a practical and profitable renewable energy source by significantly reducing biofuel production costs and fundamentally advancing enzymatic cellulosic degradation.

Honorable Mention, $2,500: ChemoFilter
ChemoFilter is a minimally invasive disposable catheter medical device that could be inserted into the veins of the body similar to a central IV line to directly filter drugs or therapeutic particles out of the blood stream.

Honorable Mention, $2,500: ALICE
ALICE is an artificial intelligence construction scheduler that can reduce schedule durations by an average of 45% as compared to leading industrial solutions.

Social-E Challenge Winners:
1st place, $25,000: Anjna Patient Education
Anjna Patient Education is a non–profit organization dedicated to empowering patients to take control of their own health through mobile (SMS and voice) technology.

2nd place, $15,000: AdaptAir
AdaptAir is an innovative product for pediatric patients in the developing world who suffer from life-threatening respiratory illnesses.

3rd place, $5,000: Flamestower
FlameStower is an energy product design and manufacturing company that has developed a small, portable generator to capture heat energy from campfires, cookstoves, any open flame, and convert it directly into electricity.

3rd place, $5,000: Vynca
Vynca is a comprehensive technology platform whose vision is to integrate healthcare information across inpatient (hospital) and outpatient (clinic) settings.

Product Showcase Winners:
1st place, $20,000: ALICE
ALICE is an artificial intelligence construction scheduler that can reduce schedule durations by an average of 45% as compared to leading industrial solutions.

2nd place, $15,000: Stratio
Stratio produces the world’s first portable infrared sensors, which unlocks the potential for infrared vision (including personalized medical diagnostics) in a smartphone and other handheld devices.

3rd place, $10,000: Flamestower
FlameStower is an energy product design and manufacturing company that has developed a small, portable generator to capture heat energy from campfires, cookstoves, any open flame, and convert it directly into electricity.

Honorable Mention, $2,500: Medable
Medable breaks down the traditional silos of healthcare to unite providers, patients, and data by integrating mobile apps and body sensors to create a data-driven dialogue.

Honorable Mention, $2,500: Refresh Innovations
Refresh Innovations produces the Refresh Card, a patent-pending, all-in-one contact lens storage case & solution package that is the size of a credit card.

Note: The picture above is the beautiful Stanford Arrilaga Alumni Center. This place has both a beautiful inside with even a grand piano and a beautiful outside.

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