Student Wins National Business Idea Pitching Contest Award

MELBOURNE, FLA. — Michael Brandyn Adderley, a Florida Tech senior and electrical engineering major from Nassau, Bahamas, has won third place and a $1,500
cash prize in the National Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO) annual Business Idea Pitching Contest held as part of the annual conference.
Adderley’s winning pitch is also his senior design project, mandatory for graduation and a bachelor’s degree. The project, “interact,” is a wireless device
to provide an instructor with continuous and interactive classroom feedback. The system contains a receiver, software and a TV remote-like
transmitter.
For example, the professor in a physics class of about 50 students wants to know how well the students understand the lesson. The professor asks a multiple
choice question with four answer options. Students can press A, B, C or D on their personal transmitters. The receiver accepts the signals and the software
displays the result in a pie chart.
“Studies show that a system such as this can increase class participation and enhance learning,” said Adderley.
Carolyn Fausnaugh, Florida Tech assistant professor of strategy and new ventures, said that Adderley worked very hard at the local business idea generation
pitching contest held twice each year at Florida Tech. “He took what he learned from the judges of the local competition, reworked his pitch and practiced
extensively,” she said. “He also sought out experts at the national conference who continued helping him work on his pitch. He was a credit to the
university.”
The National Collegiate Entrepreneur’s Organization (CEO) is the premier global entrepreneurship network serving more than 500 colleges and universities.
The organization informs, supports, and inspires college students to be entrepreneurial and seek opportunity through enterprise creation.