{"id":88360,"date":"2018-12-05T15:16:21","date_gmt":"2018-12-06T01:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=88360"},"modified":"2018-12-05T15:57:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-06T01:57:41","slug":"2018-breakthrough-innovation-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/12\/05\/2018-breakthrough-innovation-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Customizable walking device wins innovation challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_88364\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-88364\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/manoa-shidler-pace-bic2018.jpg\" alt=\"Â鶹´«Ã½Breakthrough Innovation Challenge winners\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-88364\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/manoa-shidler-pace-bic2018.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/manoa-shidler-pace-bic2018-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-88364\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lee Ann Young, Lauren Tamamoto and Asuka Suzuki (Okaraust, Audience Choice); Bradley Beeksma and Nic Ulm (Dive Buddy, 2nd place); and Austin Yoshino (G-Trainer, 1st place).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Shidler College of Business <a href=\"http:\/\/pace.shidler.hawaii.edu\/\">Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship<\/a> (<abbr>PACE<\/abbr>) conducted the final round and announced winners of the 2018 University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Breakthrough Innovation Challenge in November. <\/p>\n<p>Inspired by his brother who lives with cerebral palsy, mechanical engineering student <strong>Austin Yoshino<\/strong> designed a customizable gait trainer that incorporates gyroscopic technology in the wheels. This improved design will assist users to walk for longer periods of time, with the possibility of  walking independently in the future. Yoshino and his idea called &ldquo;G-Trainer&rdquo; captured the top prize of $2,000.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This event showcases and celebrates the innovative ideas of our students at <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr>,&rdquo; said <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2017\/08\/04\/rowan-appointed-pace-director\/\">Peter Rowan<\/a><\/strong>, executive director of <abbr>PACE<\/abbr>. &ldquo;All of the finalists this year study disciplines other than business, so for them, it\u2019s their first taste of business and entrepreneurial concepts. Our hope is that they are inspired by the experience, and decide to further develop their idea by competing in the more rigorous Spring business plan competition.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Prior to the final event, participating <abbr>UH<\/abbr> students submitted a two-minute video detailing their breakthrough idea and its market potential, and a judging panel selected five finalists. <abbr>PACE<\/abbr> then matched the finalists with coaches from the local business community to help the teams further identify commercial opportunities for the idea and develop a five-minute presentation.<\/p>\n<p>Finalists:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dive Buddy&#8212;a self-driving boat drone that flags and follows scuba divers (<strong>Bradley Beeksma<\/strong> and <strong>Nic Ulm<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<li>G-Trainer&#8212;a device for people who need assistance with walking (<strong>Austin Yoshino<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<li>Heaterator&#8212;a portable lunch box system that keeps food cold or hot (<strong>Austin Quach<\/strong>, <strong>Reginald Tolentino<\/strong> and <strong>Wyman Tong<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<li>Okaraust&#8212;a gluten-free pizza dough using okara, a tofu byproduct (<strong>Lee Ann Young<\/strong>, <strong>Lauren Tamamoto<\/strong> and <strong>Asuka Suzuki<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<li>Vert&#8212;a system that enables the growth of plants on an inclined vertical surface (<strong>Ame Arakaki<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Dive Buddy took home the 2nd prize of $1,000 and Okaraust captured the $1,000 Audience Choice award.<\/p>\n<p>The finalists presented their ideas to a judging panel comprised of Dana Cotter, director of portfolio for Elemental Excelerator; Julia Okinaka, president of Accuity Consulting Services; Tarik Sultan, managing partner of Sultan Ventures; and <strong>Susan Yamada<\/strong>, director of <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Ventures for the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> system.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s challenge was sponsored by one of the state\u2019s largest <abbr title=\"certified public accountant\">CPA<\/abbr> firms, Accuity <abbr title=\"limited liability partnership\">LLP<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/pace.shidler.hawaii.edu\/bic\">Read more about the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Breakthrough Innovation Challenge<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Austin Yoshino and his idea called G-Trainer captured the top prize of $2,000 in the Â鶹´«Ã½Breakthrough Innovation Challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[734,425,146,9],"class_list":["post-88360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-pacific-asian-center-for-entrepreneurship","tag-shidler-college-of-business","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88360"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88383,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88360\/revisions\/88383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}