"The Idea" by VetPrep Awards Three Veterinary Student Teams $17,500 in Prizes
College Station, Texas, March 21, 2017 (Newswire.com) - The Student Chapter of the American Veterinary Medical Association Annual Symposium was held this past week at Texas A&M University, College of Veterinary Medicine. Among the incredible presentations and events was the first annual finals of The Idea, an innovation competition exclusively for veterinary students, hosted by VetPrep, SAVMA, the VBMA, and ViralVet. In addition, the Veterinary Innovation Lab from Texas A&M joined VetPrep in supporting the year-long competition.
The competition, which will be held annually, originally kicked-off during SAVMA Symposium 2016 in Ames, Iowa, where highly successful veterinary entrepreneurs including Drs. Dani McVety, Nikhil Joshi, and Randy Acker provided inspirational presentations on their experience as innovators. Over 70 student teams across North America entered the competition during the inaugural year. A group of 20 semi-finalist teams worked closely with personal mentors as well as Drs. Aaron Massecar and Adam Little from the Texas A&M Veterinary Innovation Lab, to take an entrepreneurial and innovational journey that resulted in the selection of three teams to compete in the live finals at SAVMA Symposium 2017 in College Station, Texas.
"It would be amazing to see this event grow to become one of the most anticipated annual events at SAVMA Symposium, and something that everyone in the veterinary community is excited to be a part of and see. That would be a great indicator that our profession is collaborating, innovating, teaching, and having fun."
Dr. Mauricio Dujowich, VetPrep Co-founder
Judges of the live finals included Drs. Karen Shenoy (Hill’s Pet Nutrition), Joel Parker (Veterinary Practice Solutions), Lori Teller (AVMA Board of Directors), Ira Gordon (VetPrep Co-founder), and Stephen Shaw (VetPrep Co-founder). Participants pitched their innovative Ideas live to the panel of judges, and then endured a series of insightful questions before learning the results.
The $10,000 Grand Prize of The Idea Competition was presented to Joel Helbling and Rebecca Gibbs from Colorado State University for their Pharm Armour concept. Wendy Evans and Caitlin McDaniel from the University of Missouri were awarded the $5000 Second Place prize for their House Collars concept, and Oren Offer and Jimmy Popp from Western University were awarded the $2500 Third Place prize for their BeatboxECG concept. Cash prizes were awarded to assist the winning teams in funding the ongoing development of their ideas. The recording of the live finals can be viewed at https://www.vetprep.com/theidea.
The Idea Competition organizer, VetPrep, is extremely excited to have launched "Season Two" and will begin accepting applications from student innovators beginning in April. The year-long competition activities will culminate in the Season Two Live Finals at SAVMA Symposium 2018 hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine.
VetPrep sponsors The Idea Competition to provide the tools and exposure necessary for future veterinary innovators to bring their ideas to life. The competition has been shown to inspire both students and veterinarians toward achieve things they otherwise would have never attempted. As Dr. Mauricio Dujowich, Co-founder of VetPrep said, "It would be amazing to see this event grow to become one of the most anticipated annual events at SAVMA Symposium, and something that everyone in the veterinary community is excited to be a part of and see. That would be a great indicator that our profession is collaborating, innovating, teaching, and having fun."
For More Information
https://www.vetprep.com/theidea
About XPrep Learning Solutions
For over 10 years, XPrep Learning Solutions has served students worldwide as one of the most respected leaders in the online test preparation space delivering comprehensive professional board preparation solutions to veterinary, veterinary technician, optometry, and dental hygiene students.
Source: VetPrep
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