Click HERE for 2024 Competition Guidelines
While students traditionally present posters highlighting their research at the conference that ERCs hold each year for their industry partners, asking students to answer the following three questions in 90 seconds—(1) what real-life problem their research addressed, (2) how they solved it in a unique way, and (3) what impact it would have for society and in achieving their Center’s mission—they learn a succinct way of talking about their research in the context of societal needs and the broader impact of their success. These short presentations, or an “elevator pitch,” are organized as a competition among students.
Each ERC holds an internal competition in order to select one winner to send to the finals at the ERC Program biennial meeting, where an overall winner and two runners-up are chosen by a distinguished panel of judges from industry and the venture capital world.
To enhance the esprit de corps within each ERC and create an atmosphere of friendly competition among the ERCs, the specially designed Lynn Preston Trophy is presented to the ERC home of the contest’s first-place winner “for creating a nurturing environment that allowed their student to rise to the top of the competition.” The trophy resides at that center for the following two years.
2024 ERC-wide Perfect Pitch Contest Winners:
- 1st Place: Tayia Oddonetto, a PhD candidate at The University of Texas at El Paso in the Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) ERC
- 2nd Place: Will Stiffler, a Civil and Environmental Engineering PhD student at Duke University in the Precision Microbiome (PreMiEr) Engineering Research Center (ERC)
- 3rd Place: Srivasupradha Ramesh, a PhD Candidate in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in BME at the University of Minnesota in the ERC for Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems (ATP-Bio)
A complete table of past winners is posted below.
Downloads
Click HERE for 2024 Competition Guidelines
While students traditionally present posters highlighting their research at the conference that ERCs hold each year for their industry partners, asking students to answer the following three questions in 90 seconds—(1) what real-life problem their research addressed, (2) how they solved it in a unique way, and (3) what impact it would have for society and in achieving their Center’s mission—they learn a succinct way of talking about their research in the context of societal needs and the broader impact of their success. These short presentations, or an “elevator pitch,” are organized as a competition among students.
Each ERC holds an internal competition in order to select one winner to send to the finals at the ERC Program biennial meeting, where an overall winner and two runners-up are chosen by a distinguished panel of judges from industry and the venture capital world.
To enhance the esprit de corps within each ERC and create an atmosphere of friendly competition among the ERCs, the specially designed Lynn Preston Trophy is presented to the ERC home of the contest’s first-place winner “for creating a nurturing environment that allowed their student to rise to the top of the competition.” The trophy resides at that center for the following two years.
2024 ERC-wide Perfect Pitch Contest Winners:
- 1st Place: Tayia Oddonetto, a PhD candidate at The University of Texas at El Paso in the Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) ERC
- 2nd Place: Will Stiffler, a Civil and Environmental Engineering PhD student at Duke University in the Precision Microbiome (PreMiEr) Engineering Research Center (ERC)
- 3rd Place: Srivasupradha Ramesh, a PhD Candidate in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in BME at the University of Minnesota in the ERC for Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems (ATP-Bio)
A complete table of past winners is posted below.