Disease Diagnostic Group, maker of an inexpensive handheld device that can diagnose malaria in one minute, was named the winner of the 2014 Cupid’s Cup Business Competition.
The ninth annual event was hosted April 4, 2014, by the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship and chaired by Under Armour Founder and CEO Kevin Plank, UMD ’96.
In a last-minute twist to the competition, Disease Diagnostic Group's founder, an engineering student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, accepted Plank’s offer of an additional $25,000 in exchange for equity, bringing the company’s grand prize winnings to $100,000.
The $20,000 second place prize was awarded to Compology, co-founded by a University of Maryland alumnus. The company makes a sensor and software system that tracks trash bin volume and reroutes waste pickup to increase haulers’ margins by 50 percent. Another University of Maryland student-run company, Wheel Shields, collected the $5,000 third-place prize with a longboard skateboard accessory that improves safety, blocks mud and enables skaters to perform more advanced tricks.
Disease Diagnostic Group also took home the $5,000 audience choice award, decided by text voting from more than 1,000 people in the audience.
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