Benjamin Wang a University of California, Davis alumnus won top prize in this year’s Big Bang! Business Competition. Wang, who founded a medical device startup that has patented a potentially life-saving device that prevents hospital-acquired infections, won the top prize of $10,000.
Wang has been working on Nevap, Inc. since 2011 when he graduated from medical school. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from UC Davis in 2005.
“The Big Bang! Competition gets you ready to hit the pavement,” Wang said.
A total of $28,000 in prize money was handed out before a crowd of more than 120 attending the awards ceremony at the UC Davis Conference Center. A record 66 teams representing more than 200 aspiring entrepreneurs participated in the 14th annual competition. The top five finalist teams selected to make their pitches at the ceremony.
The UC Davis Child Family Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship organizes and hosts the competition, which provides workshops, mentorship, financing and networking to accelerate commercialization and advance the startup process.
“The competition has helped many entrepreneurs make the critical connections that have transformed their ideas into reality,” said Cleveland Justis, executive director of the institute.”
The second prize of $5,000 was awarded to Ambercycle Inc., founded by UC Davis junior Akshay Sethi. Ambercylce Inc. was a finalist in last year’s competition. The startup is developing a system to degrade plastics so they are cheaper and easier to recycle. Engineered organisms are used to degrade plastics into high-value chemicals that not only are used to produce new plastic, but also help reduce waste and clean up the environment.
“We’re working on bringing lab technology to commercial scale because we believe our process has significant market potential,” said Sethi.
In addition to the top three prizes, another $10,500 was awarded to top concepts for promoting innovation and social change; agriculture, food and ag-tech related innovations; and the best all-undergraduate teams.