A team of Wayne State University students won a $10,000 Mobile/Web award from the Michigan Collegiate Innovation Prize program, announced Feb. 14 at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. The Michigan Collegiate Innovation Prize is a six-month training program that offers students intensive startup training to go from an idea to venture launch.

More than 81 teams from across the state applied for the program and about 20 were selected to compete. Among those selected was a team of Wayne State students with DragAroundMe, which provides a simple and easy way to share, transfer and receive files without having to register for an account. 

For six months, the student teams received mentoring and training from Michigan Innovation Corps (I-Corps), a statewide program designed to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in Michigan. Michigan I-Corps is based on the National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program. During this time, the teams also reached out to more than 1,000 potential customers for market research, networking and establishing roots in their communities.

"Participating in the MCI Prize program has been an amazing journey for us," says Kun Wang, electrical and computer engineering graduate student and team member. "We received a lot of good suggestions from the teaching team as well as our mentor, and we learned all necessary pieces of building and growing a tech startup."

On Feb. 14, the teams made final presentations, which were judged by a panel of venture capitalists, members of the academic and business communities, and entrepreneurs. The judges considered a number of criteria including market need and potential, product definition, go-to market plans, cost and revenue forecast, and required capital investment. The Wayne State team received the top prize in the Mobile/Web category, winning $10,000 to invest in DragAroundMe.

Students on the DragAroundMe team are: 
•    Juan Chen, biomedical engineering graduate student
•    Bradlee W. Johnson, industrial design undergraduate student
•    Natalia Maria Kumar, marketing and information systems management undergraduate student
•    Kun Wang, electrical and computer engineering graduate student

Learn more about DragAroundMe at dragaround.me.