After announcing a partnership with SMU and UTD in early April to search for applicants for the RevTech SAFE Schools grant challenge, the organizations received a flurry of student pitches. And after sifting through the applications, five winners have been selected.
The SAFE Schools grant program, created by Dallas-based RevTech Ventures, put out a call for ways to create low-risk environments on campuses, as well as virus-suppression solutions as states begin to reopen and schools look for ways to bring students back into the classroom.
Winners will receive $5,000 to bring their ideas onto UTD’s and SMU’s campuses in the coming semesters. Submissions were evaluated based on resourcefulness, creativity, simplicity and the speed in which they could be brought to market, among other things.
“We are excited to help our student founders practice their entrepreneurship skills to solve an urgent, real-world problem that affects them, their fellow students, and universities at large,” said Dresden Goldberg, co-director of the UTD’s Blackstone Launchpad, in a prepared statement.
Check out the grant winners below.
Shop Ticketing System – This UTD application, created by Sameer Ranjan and Preksha Shah, looks to limit the amount and movement of people in a given space or shop. The system seeks to help places follow CDC social distancing guidelines and flatten the curve by using a ticketing system for people to book time slots to enter the space. The team is already working with 10 local shops.
Armed Forces Against COVID-19 – This SMU concept is using a three-pronged approach to fight the spread of the virus on campus. Like the military, it plans to do this through a land, sea and air approach. The team, comprised of Grace McKeehan, Noelle Gushard, Ben DeLeon, Jaxen Howell and Lauren Welch, plans to use devices that limit contact with doors, provide wellness recovery rooms on campus and use a symptom tracker to identify trends at universities.
SaniScanner – Like the name says, this UTD sterilization system is looking to use low-cost UV-C technology at checkout counters that can protect against a number of infectious diseases, including Covid-19. The two-person team, made up of Keyu Cao and Parker Watts, is planning to implement 10 sterilization units at multiple retail locations in the coming weeks.
MustangMobile – This SMU-developed app creates a mobile student ID system that allows for contact-less transactions on SMU’s campus. The app can also be used for contact tracing, with information being sent to the SMU Health Center. The team, comprised of Juliana Dinkle, Christine Hensley, Samuel Lefcourt, Ashley Montgomery, Siddhaski Solanki and Kyle Spencer, plans to implement MustangMobile across the entire SMU student body starting in Fall 2020 and believes it could save about $15 million in healthcare costs.
CampusOven - This newly launched on-demand delivery startup at UTD was created by Rohit Shenoy, Logan Harless, Benny Rubanov and Gaurav Sethi. It provides professionally catered meals to student’s doorsteps. With the grant, CampusOven expects to be able to deliver about 6,900 meals, with a total impact of more than $118,000.
