About $5,000 was up for grabs to the student with the best pitch last week.
Jonathan Yarmey was chosen by patrons at the Bow and Arrow Brewery Co. to receive $1,000. The audience choice was the largest cash prize during the competition at Lobo Rainforest Monday night. Four other contestants were awarded $450 for the judges’ choice award while the other six finalists won $250.
Yarmey’s winning pitch was an alternative approach to tracheostomies. The pitch included a mannequin located amongst the audience and an actor performing a tracheotomy.
A tracheotomy is a surgical procedure where an incision is made to the neck to relieve an obstruction in the windpipe that is preventing someone from breathing.
During his pitch, Yarmey said he would create a disposable, safer way to clear a blocked trachea.
Yarmey is a doctoral student studying biomedical engineering. He is also a veteran and former Paramedic. He started school with the intention to become a doctor. He said that, as biomedical engineer, he felt he could help more people.
Yarmey said he planned on using his winnings to help out his lab group. “Really the whole point is to make sure I can go further,” Yarmey said.
The Rainforest Student Pitch Competition is a per-semester competition put on by the Innovation Academy located in the Rainforest building downtown.
Monday night’s competition featured 11 pitches, each lasting just 90 seconds. These 11 pitches were chosen as finalist after submitting a video pitch in the qualifying round, according to the Director of Innovation Academy Robert DelCampo.
“Students will do this, generally, to get some feedback on their ideas,” DelCampo said, adding that Innovation Academy had additional ways to help fund students’ projects.
DelCampo said the competition has been running for eight semesters. He said he believes the pitches are getting better every year and that Innovation Academies statistics show that of the teams that make the finals, 91 percent go on to start a business.
Other finalists’ pitches included a cancer vaccine, a bag that would keep breast milk fresh and a Kombucha tea company.
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Mercedes Ortega, Jason Boxen, Audriana Stark and Franchesca Castillo, and Ginger Wright and Lauren Martinez all won $450 as the judges’ choices.
Delcampo said Bow and Arrow Brewery Co. donates the space for the night and the prize money is donated by Nusenda Credit Union.
The next competition will be hosted in March. Interested students can submit applications at the STC website. It’s open to any student enrolled in a New Mexico university in the upcoming spring semester.
Justin Garcia is a freelance reporter with the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers ASUNM. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter at @just516garc.
