Two Teams Win Governor’s Cup Prizes
Two teams of UALR graduate students took two of the three top awards Tuesday in the Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup business plan competition designed to encourage students at Arkansas colleges and universities to act on their ideas and talents to create future businesses.
“It’s a large credit to our student population for their extra commitment of the time and persistence necessary to get our teams wonderful recognition in front of such a large audience of the Arkansas business community,” said Dr. Joseph R. Bell, associate professor of management in UALR’s College of Business, who mentored three of the UALR teams in the final competition. “Each year the competition gets more and more competitive and the pride we have in our student effort cannot be understated.”
R.J. Martino and his sister Roxane Martino of Bryant, students at UALR’s William H. Bowen School of Law, and fellow Bowen student Anthony Johnson of Maumelle won a $10,000 second place and a chance to compete in the tri-state competition in Las Vegas in May.
They scored for their business plan for their company, ThanksBud, an online mobile marketplace changing the way services are bought and sold.
Dr. Joe Bell mentored the ThanksBud team.
Another team - MBA candidates Drew Jensen of Little Rock, Garama Lall of India, Glediana Rexha of Albania, and Kevin White of Conway, a master’s of science in taxation candidate who earned a B.A. in accounting at UALR - won third place and $5,000 for their company, Orlumet LLC.
Mildred Holley mentored the Orlumet team.
In addition to UALR prize-winning teams, the University’s entrees in the state finals were:
Wireless Structural Health Systems, LLC, designed and developed a system to provide real-time detection and monitoring of defects and damages in structures such as bridges, tunnels, and aerospace structures. Team members are James Mayhan, Nicholas Scroggins,Sarnad Raheem, Yeimer Bolanos and Oleksandr Babenko. Bell served as mentor.
iCube Technologies, created by five MBA students, developed the BiliSuit, a patent-pending technology in neonatal phototherapy that is a portable light emitting garment for infants used to treat neonatal jaundice. Team members are Jenish Pahari, Mitesh Patel, ZhengYu Li, Srijan Shrestha and Phu Huynh Bell mentored the team.