UK students compete in innovation competition

By Jonathan Coffman

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A team of UK students competed at this year’s Alltech Innovation Competition Saturday and brought home the  third-place $4,000 Alltech Choice Award.

Eight teams presented forward thinking business plans to improve food and agribusiness in Kentucky while also creating more jobs and higher efficiency.  The UK team produced an enzyme that allows starch processing to be more efficient and less costly.

“It was really well organized,” said Miguel Doughlin, a UK team member. “We presented for accomplished judges and got good feedback on our product.”

Alltech hosted the event in its second year at the BCTC Newtown Campus. The event encouraged innovation and entrepreneurship from graduate and undergraduate students in order to celebrate a tradition of forward thinking, according to the Alltech website.

Pearse Lyons, president and founder of Alltech, emphasized the importance of

innovative thinking in business environments. He provided his own guide to success during the event’s closing comments.

“Just go for it and do it yourself,” Lyons said. “You need to appear to be successful, and you need to get yourself a very good secretary. But you can use the tools around you to make these projects a reality.”

After the competition results were announced, Lyons announced the Angel Fund. The fund is designed to put money in the hands of young innovators and entrepreneurs. He stressed the importance of personal investment that innovators should have in their project and how satisfying it should be to watch the hard work pay off.

“I’ve never worked a day in my life,” Lyons said. “How can you call it work when you’re having so much fun?”

Lyons added that the $10,000 grand prize was not an arbitrary amount, but represents the exact amount of money that Alltech was founded on.

Doughlin, Erica Clark, and Satrio Husodo developed their presentation as a team and presented it at numerous competitions. Their product, called Mosquito Tech, took second place at this year’s Idea State U competition, Kentucky’s statewide business plan competition.

“We love entrepreneurship,” Clark said. “We were seeking out chances to learn about it and connected with the Von Allmen Center for Entrepreneurship through Gatton. They pointed us toward (this) competition.”