Rice team wins Thailand biz plan competition

The company won $10,000 in cash. In addition to beating out 15 other teams, the company also won the “best presentation” award.

Rice was the only school from the United States selected to present in the competition, which was hosted by the Sasin Business School at Chulalongkorn University last week.

“I believe this is the first time a Rice University team has won first place in a major business plan competition,” said Brad Burke, managing director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, organizers and hosts of the Rice Business Plan Competition, which will be held in April. Indirect Imaging will compete in that as well.

Indirect Imaging has invented a camera capable of determining the chemical composition of an area or subject within a digital photograph, instantly. These instant images can identify a myriad of chemical, organic, biological and mechanical conditions. The applications are found in food growing, harvesting and testing as well as surveillance and geological imaging. Biological applications for blood and dermal conditions are also in the near term view.

The business plan is based on a Rice University technology developed out of Rice bioengineering professor Tomasz Tkaczyk’s lab. Robert Kester, a bioengineering doctoral student is the company’s chief operating officer. MBA student Allison Lami will serve as chief executive officer. Lami brought on three additional MBA students: Tadzia GrandPré, Frances Parker and Anne Robin to compete in the competition.

Lami and Kester are currently finalizing the agreement with Rice University Office of Technology Transfer to license the technology, which they plan to develop for use in various applications.

"This is huge for us,” said Kester. “I think this experience validated our technology as well as our business plan moving forward. We are really excited about the opportunities this opens up for us.”

Reference: http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2010/03/01/daily36.html