(May 2, 2019) -- The enVault team, the group of UTSA engineering students behind the Vault-O power generator, won big this week at the $100k Student Technology Venture Competition hosted by the Center for Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CITE). The UTSA engineering majors beat out nearly 70 competitors to take the top prize for their Vault-O generator, a next-generation plug-and-play technology that aims to help reduce carbon emissions and operating costs for businesses owners.
The first-place enVault team includes UTSA engineering students Noah Bemisderfer, Robert Chavez, Nestor Falcon, Bobby Reyes and Jack Williams.
The UTSA students were sponsored by local entrepreneur Matthew Herrera, the owner of Go Pawz Go, a leader in the dog grooming space. After learning about his mobile business, they were inspired to reduce his operating expenses.
Noah Bemisderfer and Nestor Falcon stand beside the Vault-O battery-powered mobile generator.
enVault estimates that its Vault-O generator will only cost mobile operators like Herrera about $100 dollars to run. The power generator operates without diesel and gasoline and is powered through the use of advanced battery inverter technology. With the invention, Herrera can take his mobile unit directly to dog owners for longer periods at a lower cost.
The UTSA Center for Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CITE) hosts two competitions each year to give students hands-on experience in entrepreneurship and pitching for first-round funding. CITE is a collaborative center in the UTSA College of Business and UTSA College of Engineering that aims to create a pipeline for San Antonio’s ecosystem in new technology ventures. Finalists of the competition have access to a prize pool of more than $100,000 in funding and in-kind services to launch their new companies.
This year, competitors presented to a panel of industry leaders and start-up incubators including Lockheed Martin, Alamo Angels, Velocity TX, Active Capital, Targeted Technology and Geekdom. To prepare for the competition, CITE pairs the competing teams with industry advisors including CPS, UT Health and Brooke Army Medical Center to ensure successful market launches.
Second place in the CITE competition went to the biomedical engineering group C-CAM for its laryngoscope device to help first responders with intubation. JNST took third place for its cooling portable prosthetic socket which helps amputees protect residual limbs on demand.
Running alongside the CITE competition, other engineering teams competed in the Tech Symposium, a competitive program where teams present their senior capstone projects to win up to $12K in cash prices. This year, the top winner was the Daedalus Group with its automatic weapon detection system. In close second, Zometis Innovations, an all-female team, captured attention with its prototyped microbiome pill, which can be used to diagnosed the health of the stomach and intestinal tract.
Learn more about CITE.
Learn more about TECH Symposium.
Celebrate UTSA’s 50th Anniversary and share social media posts about the 50th using the hashtag #UTSA50.
Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.
UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
Learn to use the simple but powerful features of EndNote®, a citation management tool. In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn to setup an EndNote library, save references and PDFs, and automatically create and edit a bibliography.
Virtual Event ( Zoom)The Urban Bird Project at UTSA will discuss urban bird populations, conservation efforts, and how you can get involved.
JPL Assembly Room (4.04.22,) Main CampusThe DMPTool is a free online resource that helps researchers create data management plans. This workshop will cover the main components of DMPs and how to create them using the DMPTool. Attendees will learn to: locate templates by funding agency, add research collaborators, and identify institutional guidance.
Virtual Event (Zoom)Join UTSA Libraries and Museums to learn more about the publishing discounts available for UTSA researchers. Current agreements include Elsevier, Cambridge University Press, Wiley, and more. Bring your questions and feedback for the library as we continue to pursue partnerships with publishers to reduce costs for our researchers.
Virtual Event (Zoom)Citation managers such as Zotero® can help you store and organize the citations you find during your research. Zotero can also generate bibliographies in various styles, insert in-text citations and allow you to share sources with collaborators.
Virtual Event (Zoom)Have questions about making your OER accessible on UTSA Pressbooks? The OER Team and the Digital Accessibility are ready to answer them! Bring your questions about OER and accessibility and receive guidance from our two teams.
Virtual Event (Zoom)In this workshop, attendees will be introduced to Pandas, a Python tool for working with data easily. It makes it simple to organize and analyze information when data is organized and categorized, like spreadsheets or tables.
Group Spot B, John Peace LibraryThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
