Shark Tank in Utah? No, It's The Utah Entrepreneur Challenge!
Shark Tank in Utah? No, It's The Utah Entrepreneur Challenge!
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Picture this: in a room filled with eager faces, buzzing with anticipation, are students from universities and colleges all over Utah such as BYU, UVU, Salt Lake Community College, and Neumont College of Computer Science, competing for a chance to invest in themselves. The Utah Entrepreneur Challenge is an annual competition hosted by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute at the University of Utah and sponsored by Zions National Bank. Products and projects presented during the competition range from electric skateboards to software development to baby products. Only 20 teams make it to the final round for a chance to win the $30,000 grand prize as well as multiple awards and prizes ranging from $500 to $1000.
THE TITANS OF TECHNOLOGY
Neumont College students submitted two entries to The Utah Entrepreneur Challenge, Stelle and Brokie Studios. Both projects began as individual Capstone Projects that evolved to have multiple contributing students on both teams.
Brokie Studios is a game studio that specializes in developing fun and captivating video games. But building better games is just the first step, Project Manager, Patrick Switzer says, “as we set off on this adventure, we’re spreading our wings across social media platforms...Our goal is to build a community, one that’s as pumped as we are about our upcoming game [Tower of Odyssey]. We want to connect with players, share our progress and build excitement together.”
The Stelle team created an AI-powered assistant that integrates directly into a user’s dev environment that helps review and debug code. Mabel Drumheller, one of the Stelle developers, explains how it works for coders: “all you have to do is type your question into Stelle’s search bar and it will give you all the information you need, at the level you need.” The program is designed to make coding easier by suggesting ways to make the code run more efficiently and highlighting any errors.
Both Stelle and Brokie Studios emerged victorious with Judge Awards, totaling to over $5000!
NEXT STEPS
Stelle is currently available on the Visual Studio Code Extension Store, but team member Lorenzo Franco says they intend to “reinvest their prize money into scaling up their integration platform and re-launching in a more stable capacity.” They also have plans to scale up the API to integrate with the developing web and mobile applications. As a ton of research and development is happening Matthan Cantrell, lead developer, says they are in the works of developing their own language processing model that will allow them to create something unique. Stelle will also be creating a community through Discord to monetize and expand as a business.
Brokie Studios is already in development with their game “Tower of Odyssey.” It’s a solo journey through a world teeming with detail and action, where every decision alters the story’s path – creating a multitude of storylines. The team at Brokie Studios has a brand promise to “create games that are unlike anything players have experienced before, leaving a mark that lasts long after the screen goes dark.
Get more details and hear from both teams below.