Students awarded $13,000 in scholarships at 2017 Boeing New Business Challenge

James Loudin and Brandon Griggs received a shared scholarship of $4,500 for their entry, Enlighten.live, which took first place in the 2017 Boeing New Business Challenge.

Last month, twelve student teams pitched their business ideas as part of the 2017 Boeing New Business Challenge at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). Seven judges, all volunteers from the company, selected the competition’s top four winning teams, who received a combined total of $13,000 in scholarship awards.

"Boeing is very excited and pleased that we can support UAH with the New Business Challenge," says Patricia Eadon, Deputy of Program Controls and Business Management at Boeing. "It allows us to provide an invaluable exchange of information and experiences between a key member of the Huntsville business community and the UAH students."

Venika Gaur won second place with M.E.A.L.S.

This year’s first place winners were James Loudin and Brandon Griggs, who received a shared scholarship of $4,500 for their creation Enlighten.live, a freelance marketplace for a live online peer-to-peer service that allows "students" to learn from "instructors" via one-on-one video chat.

The second place winner was Venika Gaur, who received a $3,500 scholarship for her creation M.E.A.L.S., a networking app that encourages students to dine together and allows for the lending of meal cards.

Joseph Corleto and Dale Tegantvoort, who placed third, received a shared scholarship of $3,000 for their invention Rim Trim, a product designed to prevent chipping and other long-term damage to automotive wheel rims.

In fourth place, Amelia Copeland, Deborah Millan, and Ryan Cox received a shared scholarship of $2,000 for Sky High Bakery, a gluten-free bakery in Boston that allows customers to add tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) into their baked goods.

"The students of UAH are very entrepreneurial," says Eadon. "To see them take that skill, marry it together with what they are learning in the classroom and the research they are performing, and turn it into a potential product or service that could become a part of people’s everyday lives is amazing."

Joseph Corleto and Dale Tegantvoort won third place with Rim Trim.

Amelia Copeland, Deborah Millan, and Ryan Cox won fourth place with Sky High Bakery.