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JAIMS Students Win Business Plan Competition
First prize in the University of Hawaii annual business plan competition
went to a team of JAIMS students for their plan to develop and
market a high-efficiency, low-cost water filtration system that
removes arsenic and other toxic heavy metals from municipal drinking
water systems.
Harmoni Elliott (JEMBA), Jason Moran (CHEMBA), and John Varlaro
(JEMBA) joined with Liangjie Dong of local startup company MicroNose
Technology to create a plan for the company that not only won the
$25,000 prize, but is attracting world-wide attention for the product.
This was not a typical theoretical college project. Dong,
a molecular biosciences and bioengineering (MBBE) doctoral student
in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at the
University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, had created the technology,
but he needed people with business savvy to help him turn it into
a viable business operation. A chance meeting with the JAIMS students
led to their partnership in developing the business plan.
Since winning the competition, Harmoni, Jason, and John have been
featured in newspaper and magazine articles, have made presentations
for business groups and governmental agencies, and have appeared
in television news programs.
Arsenic and other heavy metal pollutants are found in some mainland
U.S. states and many third world countries. Due in part to the
publicity generated from winning the contest, MicroNose is now
preparing for explosive growth.
For these young JAIMS students, the future is unlimited. They
will complete their MBAs in November, and then decide whether to
take permanent positions with MicroNose, helping to guide it on
its way to becoming a global company.
To see a Windows Media Audio/Video news clip on the product,
click here. (Video
will start when "buffering" reaches
100%.)
More information
may be found at the MicroNose website: http://www.micronose.com/ |
