Voting is now under way and closes at 11:00 p.m. on November 13. Videos of the two finalists—Nate Buchanan, an MBA student from Hendersonville, Tennessee, who devised an online platform that helps students build good credit scores (Credit Virgin), and Mitchell Poythress, a junior from Antioch, Tennessee, who created a mobile application to help shoppers locate food items in a grocery store (Food Find)—can be found on the Vol Court Facebook page. Anyone with a Facebook account can vote for what they think is the best business idea. The idea with the greatest number of “likes” will win first prize.

The voting coincides with Global Entrepreneurship Week, a celebration of innovators designed to connect aspiring entrepreneurs to collaborators, mentors and investors.

The first-place winner will receive $1,000 to launch its business, space at the UT Research Foundation (UTRF) business incubator, consulting services from Pershing Yoakley and Associates and mentoring from the College of Business Administration’s Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ACEI) —a prize package worth more than $5,000. The second-place winner will receive $500, space in the UTRF business incubator and mentoring from ACEI.

The finalists were selected Tuesday during a Vol Court pitch session at the James A. Haslam II Business Building.

Eight individuals or teams participated in the pitch session. The remaining presenters and their ideas were:

• Keith Britt—method for transforming classic cars into electric vehicles
• Andrew Busa and C.J. Tate—online management of fantasy sports teams
• Joshua Brown—mobile application that allows bar patrons to build their ideal night out on the town
• Justin Grayman—new management system that helps software managers schedule, monitor and control large and complex projects
• Kefa Lu and Jilong Liao—software platform that intelligently and dynamically matches buyers and sellers
• Brandon McKinney—price optimization service for purchasing airfares

Each was given five minutes to pitch his business idea to a panel of judges that included current and former entrepreneurs and an investment banker. The judges had three minutes to ask questions and then choose the two finalists by consensus.

Vol Court is a series of free seminars led by entrepreneurs and business experts from across the region. The series is held both in the fall and spring and is open to students, faculty and the general public. The series is based on the latest developments in entrepreneurial education emerging out of Silicon Valley.

More than eighty students, faculty, staff and university friends participated this semester, said Joy Fisher, Vol Court managing director. Student participants came from multiple colleges across the campus.

“We had 20 percent growth in participation compared to the spring semester,” she said. “This highlights the continued growth of the entrepreneurial culture here at the university and in the region, as well as the need to continue helping our aspiring entrepreneurs develop the contacts and acquire the skills needed to successfully start their own businesses.”

Vol Court is sponsored by the Anderson Center, UT Federal Credit Union, Pershing Yoakley and Associates and the UT Research Foundation.

For more information on Vol Court, visit the Anderson Center website.

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C O N T A C TS :

Joy Fisher (865-974-0520, joy.fisher@tennessee.edu)

Guidelines

• Open to all UT researchers, faculty, staff, and students at all campuses and institutes.
• Projects must be related to an existing UT invention/creation disclosure, or a proposal can be accompanied by a new UT invention/creation disclosure.
• All proposals should generate new data that validate the technology and increase its commercial readiness. They should clearly describe how the expected results will increase the commercial opportunities for the technology.
• Proposals that only generate basic research results should not be submitted.
• Identification of potential commercial partners for collaboration on this proposal is encouraged.

Proposal Requirements

• Proposals should describe the technology and its existing data, plan of work, expected results, budget, and an assessment of how the expected results will increase the commercial opportunities for the technology.
• Funds should be directed to labor, materials, and services necessary to achieve the proposed deliverable(s). Indirect costs are not allowed.
• Funds may not be used for PI salary, but may be used for student, post-doctoral, or technical staff support.
• Proposal should not exceed three pages, excluding references, which may be included as a one-page appendix. (The proposal plus the appendix must not exceed four pages.)
• Proposal should be received by the campus-specific research office (through TERA PAMS) by the close of business on Tuesday, October 16.

Judging Criteria

• Demonstration of a path for commercial development
• Market potential
• Stage of development

Deadlines & Schedule

• Proposal receipt by your research office: 5:00 p.m., October 16
• Awards announced: November 16
• Project start date: December 10
• Project completion date: September 13, 2013
• Final report due: October 11, 2013

For more information, contact David Washburn at davewash@utk.edu or 865-974-1882. Those at the Health Science Center may contact Janet Ralbovsky at jralbovs@uthsc.edu or 901-448-1146.

UT will receive $600,000 over two years from the National Science Foundation through its “Partnerships for Innovation” program to commercialize and optimize Mays’ newfound “superelastomers.” This is UT’s first NSF award focused on commercialization of research, and it is the Anderson Center’s first NSF award.

Superelastomers are polymers that can be repeatedly stretched without permanently deforming the shape of the material. They can be stretched further than ordinary elastomers (or rubbers). What makes superelastomers “super” is that they hold promise for improved strength, recyclability and more efficient processing of materials used in many different products. This revolutionary new concept would open up applications in many areas, such as toothbrushes, gloves, skin care, audio devices, and filtering technologies.

Jimmy Mays, right, shows Joy Fisher the mechanical strength of a piece of Superelastomers™ material.

“For example, the high strength and superior elastic properties of superelastomers make it possible to make thinner surgical gloves, thus enhancing the surgeon’s dexterity in the operating room,” Mays said. “Conventional rubbers, like car tires, are virtually impossible to recycle. In contrast, superelastomers may be readily recycled just by melting the scrap material and re-shaping it into a new product.”

Thus, the innovation will have the capability of reducing the worldwide carbon footprint by replacing rubbers with a material that is both recyclable and requires less energy to make.

MBA students and faculty will work with Mays’ students to assess the market for his technology and develop business plans for pursuing specific market opportunities. The typical team will consist of two students studying entrepreneurship and two technical students who will work with small businesses and experienced mentors to validate the market viability. About 24 interdisciplinary students will get hands-on experience in market assessment, business planning, and technology transfer required to launch a successful technology-based start-up.

“By pairing business with technical students, we expect that innovation capacity will be increased at the university,” said Joy Fisher, who oversees the center’s technology commercialization efforts. “This will be done through the introduction of successful new businesses based on technologies that solve a market problem. We plan to use this program as the basis to develop a new, cross-college entrepreneurship course that will help us continue building an entrepreneurial talent pool in the region.”

UT’s Partnerships for Innovation also aim to stimulate the local and national economies by creating new jobs and the transformation of knowledge created by the research and education enterprise. The program has already partnered with five companies.

“The goal of the Partnerships in Innovation program is to increase the country’s competitiveness,” Mays said. “The successful commercialization of this innovation has the potential to grow existing businesses and create new ones by innovating new products. It also will accelerate the transfer of future technologies from universities into the marketplace and contribute to the education of both existing and next generation entrepreneurs.”

The superelastomers were discovered with the help of Roland Weidisch of Fraunhofer Institute in Germany and Samuel Gido of the University of Massachussetts Amherst. UT’s Partnerships for Innovation project is in collaboration with Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, UT Office of Research, the UT Research Foundation, Asius Technologies, BBB Elastomers, Ina-Mei Skin Care, Fuji Film, MAPA GmbH, Technology 20/20, and Venture Incite.

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C O N T A C T :

Whitney Heins (865-974-5460, wheins@utk.edu)

Joy Fisher (865-243-7907, joy.fisher@tennessee.edu)

How’s the Living Inc., a company that operates www.howstheliving.com, a business founded by UT engineering major Aeron Glover and UT business major Kaliv Parker, is currently in the top twenty of the Intel Innovators contest. Their company is an online and mobile resource that allows college students to rate, review, and browse student housing around the world.

The Intel competition showcases eighteen- to twenty-four-year-old innovators with game-changing, technology-based ideas. Participants win based on the amount of support they receive via Facebook.

To help Glover and Parker win, Facebook users can:

1. Log on to www.facebook.com, and use the search bar to find the “Intel Innovators” application.

2. Accept the “Intel Innovators app,” where a user will earn 10,500 “social capital points” that will be used to vote for the pair.

3. Find howstheliving.com by clicking the “Pitch Room” tab.

4. Click “Invest” and type in the maximum amount of your social capital to fully invest in, or vote for, their idea.

Voting ends December 19. If successful, Glover and Parker will use their winnings to enhance their website and hire additional staff to prepare the company for expansion to other universities.

In the last twelve months, How’s the Living Inc. has won three major competitions. In December 2010, Glover and Parker’s company won the $25,000 first prize in the Movers & Changers competition, a national business pitch competition sponsored by mtvU and the New York Stock Exchange.

In fall 2010, it won the UT Vol Court Competition, a series of eight free how-to seminars led by entrepreneurs and business experts from across the state. The Vol Court win gave the company another $1,000 and additional services valued at $22,000. The team added to that momentum in April 2011after receiving a $10,000 business development grant from the Tennessee Technology Development Corporation.

For more information on How’s the Living Inc., e-mail talk2us@howstheliving.com.

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C O N T A C T :

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lola.alapo@tennessee.edu)

Tennessee Technology Development Corporation (TTDC) has granted a $10,000 business development grant to How’s the Living (HTL), a company that operates the website howstheliving.com, which helps college students learn more about student housing around the world.

In December 2010, Glover and Parker’s company won the $25,000 first prize in the Movers & Changers competition, a national business pitch competition sponsored by mtvU and the New York Stock Exchange. In the fall, it won the Vol Court Competition, a series of eight free how-to seminars led by entrepreneurs and business experts from across the state. The Vol Court win gave HTL another $1,000 with additional services valued at $22,000.

HTL was one of twenty-eight high-potential, early-stage businesses that pitched their ideas at TTDC’s Venture Showcase competition, which was part of the Tennessee NEXT 2011 Conference held in Nashville on May 5 and 6. Tennessee NEXT is the state’s only conference focused exclusively on innovation-based economic development.

“The TTDC conference was an amazing opportunity for How’s the Living,” said Parker. “There were so many strong ideas and even stronger teams. We learned so much from the competition, and we look forward to applying what we learned at the conference in future pitch opportunities.”

Glover and Parker have used their winnings to put together a new and improved website which will allow college students to rank features of their new residence halls at more than a 1,000 colleges and universities nationwide. The website premieres May 16.

“We’re just 21-year-old college students trying to make life easier for fellow college students by building a housing review platform so that students won’t be surprised when they move into university housing,” said Glover.

The Venture Showcase competition awards will be used by the companies to build their businesses and are a part of TTDC’s Technology Maturation Fund program, which provides commercialization grants to inventors and entrepreneurs to help move promising technologies through early-stage development in order to attract additional investor support or secure third‐party licensing.

The awards are given on a competitive basis to for-profit entities and innovators affiliated with the University of Tennessee system, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Tennessee Board of Regents, the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association, Vanderbilt University, and the Y‐12 National Security Complex.

The Tennessee NEXT Conference, held annually in Nashville, is the state’s premier event devoted to innovation-based economic development with a focus on commercially promising technologies, early-stage businesses, and the resources required for highly effective translation of technology to the marketplace. For more information about the conference, visit http://www.tntechnology.org/conference.

TTDC is a private, nonprofit organization focused on increasing science and technology business development in Tennessee.

For more information about HTL, contact Aeron Glover at aeron@howstheliving.com or Kaliv Parker at kaliv@howstheliving.com.

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CONTACT:

Whitney Holmes (865-974-5460, wholmes7@utk.edu)

mtvU revealed today that Aeron Glover, an engineering major, and Kaliv Parker, a business major, won the 2010 Movers & Changers competition, a national business pitch competition sponsored by mtvU and the New York Stock Exchange. The revelation was made in today’s airing of the final episode documenting Movers & Changers.

“We have been looking forward to the mtvU competition, so we are pretty excited about winning. We expected it and we are excited to move forward from here,” said Glover.

All episodes of the competition can be viewed online.

Glover and Parker, both juniors from Memphis, developed a website called How’s the Living to help college students learn more about student housing around the world. They defeated two other finalists in the 2010 Movers & Changers competition for the $25,000 in seed money which they plan to put to good use.

“We have several ways that we have mapped out to spend the money. Some of that is reinventing our website. We want to make it more interactive for our users as well as provide more incentives for our students such as e-coupons or gift card discounts to go on and rate their housing on our site,” said Parker.

The series featured Glover and Parker and the other two teams and followed them as they went to New York City, rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange, attended the NYSE Movers & Changers Forum, received tips from mentors such as actor/comedian Nick Cannon, and presented their plans to a panel of industry executives.

“Presenting our idea to the panel of experts at the Movers & Changers competition was unreal. To find individuals who are leaders in the industry and to have to pitch in front of them was kind of intimidating at first but after starting our pitch and getting into it, we were confident in moving forward,” said Parker.

Glover and Parker first presented their idea at the 2010 Undergraduate Business Plan Competition, sponsored by the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the UT Knoxville College of Business Administration. Through faculty and entrepreneurial mentoring, the campus-wide competition allowed the students to refine their plan. They also have been helped by College of Engineering’s Entrepreneurship program. Prior to winning the mtvU competition, they participated in and won the 2010 Vol Court, a training seminar and competition jointly sponsored by the Anderson Center and the UT Research Foundation.

mtvU is a division of Viacom’s MTV Networks which produces a 24-hour television channel that is available on more than 750 college and university campuses across the United States.

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C O N T A C T :

Whitney Holmes (865-974-5460, wholmes7@utk.edu)

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)

The featured technology is a plasma that can be created from ordinary air at standard pressure and ambient temperatures and can be used to purify air, sterilize equipment and even textiles. Compared to prior plasmas used for sterilization, it is much more versatile because it does not require expensive specialty gasses or the use of extreme heat, and it does not have to occur in a vacuum.

Advanced Plasma Products (APP), a startup company headquartered in Knoxville, licensed the patented technology from the University of Tennessee Research Foundation (UTRF) and has produced its first product, the TriClean Pro.

The TriClean Pro is a standalone air purification system capable of sanitizing the air more than three times per hour in a 4,000-cubic-foot room. This sanitization capability is ideal for health care facilities where patients are more susceptible to infection, such as surgical suites, intensive care units, medical waiting rooms, nursing homes and surgical centers. It also has extensive application in other market areas such as athletic locker rooms, hotel rooms and animal care facilities.

“APP is a great success story for how companies can take advantage of the discoveries emerging from the University of Tennessee,” said Randy Gentry, president of UTRF. “They have done a wonderful job in taking the basic technology and turning it into a product that is having a positive effect on human lives.”

In addition to the TriClean Pro, APP has also developed a chamber disinfection product to periodically and automatically clean medical waste loading chambers in pneumatic waste movement systems and is exploring other applications including surgical instrument sterilization units and an athletic equipment disinfection product. These applications have not been possible in the past due to the limitations of the prior technology.

The Better World Project was launched by the Association of University Technology Managers in 2005 to increase public understanding of how academic research and technology transfer benefit individuals and communities around the world. Technology transfer is the process that takes a discovery made in a laboratory and turns it into a product that makes its way to the marketplace. This is the second time that a company based on UT technology has been selected for the report.

UTRF is an independent 501(c)3 organization that promotes the commercialization of UT intellectual property, among other work. UTRF’s Technology Transfer Office assists UT researchers with the necessary resources to increase invention attractiveness for licensing to existing or startup businesses. UTRF serves all seven campuses and institutes across the State of Tennessee. For more information, go to http://utrf.tennessee.edu.

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C O N T A C T :

Whitney Holmes, wholmes7@utk.edu, 865-974-5460

Joy Fisher, joy.fisher@tennessee.edu, 865-974-0520

Ken Wood, kswood@advancedplasmaproducts.com, 908-507-6239

Danny Smith, winner of the Spring 2010 VolCourt, Tom Graves of CEI and Joy Fisher of UTRF.

KNOXVILLE — Do you have a seed of an idea but need help getting it to grow? The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is once again providing students, faculty and friends the opportunity to learn from entrepreneurs and business experts from across the state on how to start a business and win a prize to kickstart its growth.

“Vol Court” is a series of one-hour workshops focusing on how to start a business. They begin on Sept. 21. The final session will be a pitch competition where the top two presenters or teams will win cash prizes and valuable business services.

Vol Court will be held Tuesdays at 5:15 p.m. at the Stokely Management Center, Room 701. The program is a joint effort of the UT Research Foundation, the College of Business Administration’s Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI), and Technology 2020′s Center for Entrepreneurial Growth (CEG).

Teams or individuals with the best business ideas will receive up to $1,000 from the Anderson CEI to launch their business, space at the UTRF business incubator, mentoring from CEG, legal advice from Miller & Martin PLLC and accounting services from Parker Business Consulting — a prize package worth more than $23,000. The second prize is worth $8,000 in seed money, incubator space and services.

This year’s schedule is as follows:

• Sept. 21: Going Pro (Starting Your Own Business)
• Sept. 28: Practice the Throw
• Oct. 5: Generating Product Ideas
• Oct. 12: Knowing your Fans (Who is Your Customer?)
• Oct. 19: Collecting the Gate (Show Me the Money)
• Oct. 26: What is Your Game Plan?
• Nov. 2: Building Your Team
• Nov. 9: Vol Court Pitch Competition

In the Vol Court Pitch Competition, each team will be given eight minutes to pitch their business idea to a panel of judges that includes a local venture capitalist, current and former entrepreneurs and a lawyer. The judges will have five minutes to ask questions of each team, and then they will decide the winner by consensus.

“Each week gave me a different perspective into the trials and tribulations of an entrepreneur,” said past participant Jon Huber. “If you have a desire to start your own business, then you should take the time and listen to the experts. I began to understand how much I didn’t know about starting a business.”

“VolCourt gave me a huge boost toward my goal of running my own business. As a technical person, I wasn’t aware of everything involved in starting and operating a successful business,” said Greg Shutt, another past participant. “The VolCourt seminars presented several concepts and challenged me to consider how I could apply them to my own business without ever being overwhelming to someone who has never had any business classes.”

For more information on Vol Court, visit http://utrf.tennessee.edu/news/.

The Anderson CEI facilitates entrepreneurial knowledge creation and dissemination through research, teaching and practice in the area of entrepreneurship. It strives to develop entrepreneurial talent who will start businesses or contribute to the success of existing technology-driven businesses. The center provides experiential learning activities that enhance classroom instruction in entrepreneurship and innovation, offers links between the regional entrepreneurial community and the university, and acts as a hub for cross-campus initiatives that foster the growth of entrepreneurial research and commercially viable enterprises. For more information, visit http://AndersonCEI.utk.edu.

The CEG is an entrepreneurial support organization within Technology 2020, one of the primary drivers of innovation and economic development in the region. The CEG helps entrepreneurs develop an execution strategy that leads to a sustainable company. In addition to its strategic planning process, the CEG develops and delivers entrepreneurial training seminars. For more information, visit http://www.tech2020.org/ceg_about.html.

UTRF helps turn the ideas and discoveries that emerge from UT into products and services that benefit society. In addition to supporting the growth of research at the university and commercialization of the resulting inventions, UTRF champions entrepreneurship and drives state and regional technology-based economic development. UTRF serves all seven of the UT campuses and institutes across the state. For more information, visit http://utrf.tennessee.edu/.

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C O N T A C T:

Joy Fisher (865-974-0520, joy.fisher@tennessee.edu)

Whitney Holmes (865-974-5460, wholmes7@utk.edu)

The event aims to serve as a catalyst for transformational economic development impact by facilitating dialogue between scientists and venture capitalists and other risk capital investors. Researchers will receive useful data such as strategy input and feedback, references to potential partners or investors, market opportunities, and awareness of potential competitors so that they can make better decisions during their technology development that may positively affect commercial success. The investors will see what is next in the world of innovation.

The UT researchers are among more than 40 scientists and inventors who will present their early-stage innovations to panels of venture capitalists and intellectual property experts.

“When the innovations emerging here at the University of Tennessee make their way to the market, they can have a greater impact on society,” said Joy Fisher, director of marketing and business development at the University of Tennessee Research Foundation (UTRF) and statewide organizer of the innovation conference at the event. “By interacting with potential investors and industry experts, our scientists can learn what is needed to commercialize their inventions, which can have the potential to help transform Tennessee’s economy.”

The following UT Knoxville researchers were recommended to participate in the conference by UTRF based on topics suggested by TTDC along with the willingness of the researchers to participate:

• Juan Luis Jurat-Fuentes, from the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture (UTIA), who is researching a new environmentally-friendly pesticide that targets currently uncontrollable pests.
• Shane Foister, from UT Knoxville, who is researching methane oxidation catalysts.
• Ramki Kalyanaraman, from UT Knoxville, who is researching thin film silicon-based photovoltaics.
• Jimmy Mays, from UT Knoxville, who is researching high performance and lower cost fuel cell membranes.
• Jayne Wu, from UT Knoxville, who is researching a diagnostic lab-on-a-chip.
• Qixin Zhong, from UTIA, who is researching heat-stable proteins for beverage ingredients.

Researchers that participated last year found this event extremely valuable. In fact, $150,000 in additional grant funding was ultimately secured for two researchers last year as a result of participating in this event.

UTRF helps turn the ideas and discoveries that emerge from the University of Tennessee into products and services that benefit society. In addition to supporting the growth of research at UT and commercialization of the resulting inventions, UTRF champions entrepreneurship and drives state and regional technology-based economic development. UTRF serves all seven of the UT campuses and institutes across the state.

TTDC is an independent, non-profit corporation that designs, implements and manages technology-based economic development programs in service to Tennessee. TTDC serves as the state’s trusted advisor on strategic initiatives related to venture capital formation, research and development activity and high-potential entrepreneurship.

To learn more about the TTDC-sponsored conference, visit http://www.tntechnology.org/events/ttdc-innovation-conference/2/.

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C O N T A C T :

Joy Fisher (865-974-0524, jfishe26@utk.edu)

Vol Court is a series of nine free how-to seminars led by entrepreneurs and business experts from across the state. The program is joint effort of UTRF, the College of Business Administration’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) and the CEG.

The teams vying for the opportunity to grow their business include:

• “Ratemyhostfamily.com, LLC,” a Web site that uses an online survey platform to allow study abroad students to give quantitative and open-ended feedback about their host family, residence hall, and apartment while studying abroad.
• “Real Mobile,” a mobile marketing company that enables real estate companies, agents and private home-sellers to more effectively market their listings.
• “Michael’s Home Improvements,” a company that provides expert craftsmanship for the installation of tile, hardwood, engineered flooring and construction of decks, screen room and room additions.
• “SpringBox,” a company that sells a compact computer server and related support service that acts as a stand-in for an information technology (IT) department in a small business.
• “Brolo,” an internet-based video chat service that incorporates the latest in peer-to-peer technology, algorithmic search functions and active digital video management.
• “Boulder Booties,” a company which sells a product that protects the specialized climbing shoes worn while rock climbing.
• “Integrated Technologies,” a company which specializes in large scale application of piezoelectric material to provide energy to sell back to energy companies.
• “Mobile Micro Medical,” a portable blood reintegration technology that allows medical responders to stabilize trauma victims prior to transportation to a medical facility.

Each team will be given eight minutes to pitch their business idea to a panel of judges that includes a local venture capitalist, current and former entrepreneurs and a lawyer. The judges will have five minutes to ask questions of each team, and then they will decide the winner by consensus.

“We’ve had 80 students, faculty, staff and university friends participate in our first ever Vol Court series, which truly exceeded our expectations” said Joy Fisher, director of marketing and business development for UTRF. “The entrepreneurial culture here at the university is growing, and this competition is helping our aspiring entrepreneurs to acquire the skills and resources they need to successfully start their own businesses.”

For more information on Vol Court, visit http://utrf.tennessee.edu/news/.

The CEI facilitates entrepreneurial knowledge creation and dissemination through research, teaching and practice in the area of entrepreneurship. It strives to develop entrepreneurial talent who will start businesses or contribute to the success of existing technology-driven businesses. The center provides experiential learning activities that enhance classroom instruction in entrepreneurship and innovation, offers links between the regional entrepreneurial community and the university, and acts as a hub for cross-campus initiatives that foster the growth of entrepreneurial research and commercially viable enterprises.

The CEG is an entrepreneurial support organization within Technology 2020, one of the primary drivers of innovation and economic development in the region. The CEG helps entrepreneurs develop an execution strategy that leads to a sustainable company. In addition to its strategic planning process, the CEG develops and delivers entrepreneurial training seminars.

UTRF helps turn the ideas and discoveries that emerge from the University of Tennessee into products and services that benefit society. In addition to supporting the growth of research at UT and commercialization of the resulting inventions, UTRF champions entrepreneurship and drives state and regional technology-based economic development. UTRF serves all seven of the UT campuses and institutes across the state.

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C O N T A C T:

Whitney Holmes (865-974-5460, wholmes7@utk.edu)

The one-hour seminars will be held on Tuesdays, beginning on Feb. 9. Some of the sessions will be held at the University of Tennessee Research Foundation Technology Business Center, 2450 E.J. Chapman Dr. SW. Others will be held in the Stokely Management Center.

Vol Court is a joint effort of the University of Tennessee Research Foundation (UTRF), the College of Business Administration’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) and the Center for Entrepreneurial Growth (CEG).

“Our goal is to create an entrepreneurial culture on the UT Knoxville campus,” said Tom Graves, CEI director of operations. “Participation in Vol Court is an exceptional opportunity to network and develop skills that also can be applied in competing for the additional $20,000 in prizes to be awarded to winners of the Annual Undergraduate Business Plan Competition this April. I strongly encourage interested competitors to attend.”

Joy Fisher, UTRF director of marketing and business development, said those interested in attending the seminar should include people who’ve got great ideas, but no business know-how, as well as people who have business know-how, but are looking for great ideas.

“This is a perfect way to bring people together to see if they can merge their talents and turn them into businesses,” she said.

The $20,000 prize package for the winning team includes a year’s worth of space and professional mentoring at the business incubator, along with $1,000 in cash and 10 hours of free legal advice, courtesy of Miller & Martin PLLC.

All sessions begin at 5 p.m. Here are the topics of the seminars, presenters and locations:

Feb. 9 — Going Pro (Starting Your Own Business). Identifying your team and committing to the process. Presented by Chuck Witkowski, Will Overstreet and Andrew Dougherty. UTRF Technology Business Center.

Feb. 16 — Generating Product Ideas. Developing and protecting your idea. Presented by Mike Carroll. UTRF Technology Business Center.

Feb. 23 — Knowing Your Fans. Identifying and reaching your customers. Presented by Shawn Carson. UTRF Technology Business Center.

March 2 — What Is Your Game Plan? Developing a business plan. Presented by Lynn Youngs. Stokely Management Center, seventh floor.

March 16 — Building Your Team. Setting up a board of directors or advisory board and finding mentors. Presented by John Morris. Stokely Management Center, seventh floor.

March 23 — Practice the Throw. Learning how to network and pitch your idea. Presented by Dan Ryan. Stokely Management Center, seventh floor.

March 30 — Collecting the Gate. Finding capital and dealing with investors. Presented by Chris Miller. Stokely Management Center, seventh floor.

April 6 — Getting in the Game. Understanding the life of an entrepreneur. Presented by John Jansheski. Stokely Management Center, seventh floor.

April 13 — The Vol Court. The pitch competition. Judged by Roddy Bailey, Grady Vanderhoofven, Doug Speight and Chris Van Beke. Stokely Management Center, seventh floor.

Please check for updates on speakers and locations at http://utrf.tennessee.edu/news/.

The CEI facilitates entrepreneurial knowledge creation and dissemination through research, teaching and practice in the area of entrepreneurship. It strives to develop entrepreneurial talent who will start businesses or contribute to the success of existing technology-driven businesses. The center provides experiential learning activities that enhance classroom instruction in entrepreneurship and innovation, offers links between the regional entrepreneurial community and the university, and acts as a hub for cross-campus initiatives that foster the growth of entrepreneurial research and commercially viable enterprises. For more information, go to http://cei.utk.edu/.

The Center for Entrepreneurial Growth (CEG), a division of Technology 2020, manages the technology business incubator at UT, as well as other local business incubator facilities. For more information, go to http://www.tech2020.org/ceg_about.html.

UTRF helps inventors at UT turn their ideas and discoveries into products and services that benefit society. Its services include evaluation of inventions, funding and managing the patent process, marketing, negotiating license agreements, managing licensee and government compliance issues, registering copyrights or trademarks, Materials Transfer Agreements (MTAs), consulting on intellectual property (IP) provisions in research agreements, collecting and distributing royalties, supporting start-up companies based on UT technology, confidentiality Agreements (CDAs) and presenting educational seminars on intellectual property and start-up issues. UTRF serves all seven of the UT campuses and institutes across the state. For more information, visit http://utrf.tennessee.edu.

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C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)