The IEA Idea Challenge is held each school year. Sponsored by The Coleman Foundation, the Kern Family Foundation, the IEA, and the Entrepreneurship Program at IIT, this contest is open to all undergraduate students. Students answer the following eight questions about their idea:

Our panel of independent judges then reviews each submission. The top ten entries are recognized at the Fall IPRO Day, with the top three earning $1500.00 in prizes. Students who advance to the second round of the challenge get advice from IIT faculty and staff on how to fully develop their ideas, and their ideas may become EnPROs for the 2009-10 school year. In addition, their ideas are submitted for possible inclusion in the Idea to Product Competition. I2P is an early-stage technology commercialization competition that recognizes unique product ideas that use innovative technologies, with a grand prize of $25,000.00.

This semester, four of our IEA Idea Challenge teams were selected by Saint Louis University to compete in the regional level of the 2009 Idea to Product (I2P) competition:

On March 20th, the members of each team traveled to Saint Louis to present their ideas at the John Cook School of Business at Saint Louis University. The teams were accompanied by staff members Jodi Houlihan and Zach Hench.

A total of sixteen teams, from schools including Saint Louis University, Washington University, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, competed in the semi-finals. For this round, the teams were split into various categories, including Human Engineering, Medical, and Automation. Each team gave a ten minute presentation about their idea to a group of several judges. There was then a twenty minute question and answer session with the judges.

All four IIT teams did very well in the semi-finals. Odorno and Automated Smart Binoculars came in third place in their respective tracks, earning each team $250. Music Tablet was a second place winner, earning $500. Autocount won the semi-final round in its track moved on to the finals, which were held very early on Saturday morning. As before, each of the four final teams had to give a ten minute presentation, followed by twenty minutes of Q&A – this time with a panel of ten judges.


After delivering a spectacular presentation, entertaining and engaging the judges and the audience, Autocount won first place in the Missouri-Illinois Regional Idea to Product Competition! For their hard work and innovative thinking, the team earned $2500. Their idea has also been submitted for review by the global competition review board. Should their idea be accepted, they will be invited to the I2P Global Competition, which will be held this November in Austin, Texas.

Overall, the experience was valuable for all teams, helping them gain real world exposure to technological innovation, market awareness, and entrepreneurship. Music Tablet founder Emmanuel Marcha noted that the judges’ feedback was “most helpful for determining the potential future of [his] product.” Or, as the AutoCount team said shortly after winning the competition, “[This is] truly a sense of validation. Isn’t this what every innovator hopes and lives for?”