University-Sponsored Business Team Honored

MicroTransponder Inc., a team sponsored by The Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UT Dallas, walked away with four separate awards at the Rice University Business Plan Competition April 3-5 in Houston.

The competition, hosted by the Rice Alliance, is the largest and richest intercollegiate graduate-level business plan competition in the world, attracting 224 entries from MBA programs.

Thirty-six teams were invited to Houston to compete for $675,000 in prizes. Seven teams, including MicroTransponder, advanced to the final round Saturday afternoon.

In the finals, MicroTransponder competed against teams from Brigham Young University, Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Texas at Austin.

MicroTransponder was recognized for the Best Written Business Plan and the Best Medical Device Company. The team finished fourth in both the Elevator Pitch and the overall competitions, bringing home $10,750 in cash prizes.

MicroTransponder is headed by Will Rosellini, currently a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Rosellini received an MBA and a master’s degree in Accounting from the School of Management at UT Dallas in 2003.  The team also included Ali Abassi and Charles Lusk, both MBA students at Rice. Dr. Joseph Picken, executive director of the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UT Dallas, was the faculty adviser.

MicroTransponder is commercializing a wireless neurostimulation device for the treatment of peripheral nerve pain, based on UT Dallas technology originally developed by Dr. Larry Cauller, an associate professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Last week, MicroTransponder won the Big 12 CEDIC Business Plan Competiton and received an invitation to compete in the prestigious 2008 Global Moot Corp Competition sponsored by UT Austin on May 1-3.

The Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at UTD is a collaboration among the schools of Arts and Humanities, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Engineering and Computer Sciences, Management, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and Economic, Political and Policy Sciences.

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