Students net $15,000

Andrew Edwards

After weeks of planning and late nights, only one team was left to

claim a $15,000 prize.

Abhi Singh, a student in UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of

Business, was one of four members of UniCom, the winning team at

Friday’s Campuswide Business Plan Competition. The event was

organized by the business school’s Center for Entrepreneurship and

Innovation.

The win did not come easy.

“We have been spending the last few weeks staying up all night

almost,” Singh said.

The other three members of Singh’s team are electrical engineers

and the quartet is working toward making its plan a part of the

business world. Singh said UniCom, which is short for Universal

Communications, already has three patents. The team’s plan is to

build a technology business around a broadband power amplifier that

can be used to transmit signals from cellphones made by different

companies.

The team plans to use the prize money to further its business’

growth.

“I think it’s going to be used for starting up the company, paying

the legal fees, incorporating the company,” Singh said.

The competition started with 37 teams, which were whittled down to

the 14 that presented business plans to judges in Friday’s daylong

event, said Eric de Valpine, an associate director for the Center for

Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Of the 14 teams that began the morning, three finalists were

chosen for the final round. The teams’ plans were required to include

explanations of each business’ product or service, an assessment of

how much demand there is for their idea, and a description of how the

company would manage its operations and finances. Judges evaluated

teams’ written plans and presentations.

“A lot of it is the idea, and a lot of it is the articulation of

the idea,” de Valpine said.

All three finalists’ plans centered around technological

innovations. Second place, and $7,500, was awarded to Modulated

Imaging Inc., a team that developed an imaging device to monitor

wound treatment. Team member Jeff Nelder described his team’s product

as one that could make the difference between whether a patient’s leg

would be amputated or not.

Members of CoherenTech, the team that won third place and $1,500,

based their plan around radio-frequency-identification technology.

Team member Tommy Yu said his team’ product could be used for

inventory control. Tags that reflect radio waves can be attached to

any item that someone wants to track. A device called a reader would

emit radio waves that bounce back after hitting the tags, letting

someone know where items are.