Student innovators won’t want to miss the opportunity to compete in the inaugural Innovation Quest (iQ) contest at UConn.  Top contenders will have a shot at up to $15,000 in cash award money along with an expenses-paid six-week summer immersion “incubator” program at the Storrs campus, where they will receive hand-on mentorship, coaching and networking to more fully develop their business plans.

Students and teams across all UConn campuses are invited to compete in this inaugural event.  There is no cost to participate in the program.

A kickoff workshop will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, February 1 in the Center for Undergraduate Education (CUE) Building. During the workshop, students will receive a variety of tips on preparing for the competition, refining their preliminary business plans and defining what makes their idea novel and marketable. Monitor the engineering website for details.

The UConn liaison for the iQ competition is entrepreneur Eric Knight, who recently joined UConn’s Springboard Program.

The Innovation Quest competition began in 2005 at the California Polytechnic Institute (Cal Poly).  UConn is the first university beyond Cal Poly to host the competition. View the iQ contest announcement here.

The impetus behind bringing the iQ to Storrs was UConn School of Business alumnus Keith Fox (‘80), one of the organization’s five Managing Partners, who has retained close ties with UConn throughout his career.  Keith serves on the Advisory Board of UConn’s School of Business as well as the UConn Foundation. He began his career with Apple Computer and then joined Cisco Systems, where he was Vice President of Worldwide Corporate Marketing. Later, he founded and served as CEO of Brandsoft, an enterprise software and consulting company focused on brand management.

At UConn, the iQ organization is represented by Springboard’s Eric Knight along with Rita Zangari, Director of the Office of Technology Commercialization and Dr. Mary Holz-Clause, Vice President of Economic Development.