Cedars, February 2020

February 2020 4 CAMPUS by Zachary Krauss O n Jan. 11, students and student teams presented their business ideas to a group of students, professors and investors in the second-annual The Pitch, a competition much like “Shark Tank.” Seventeen teams submitted ideas, but only eight made it to The Pitch stage. During the competition, students used a slide presentation to give an overview of their concept and presented it to the audience in a five-minute speech, after which they took audience questions for five more minutes. Below is a breakdown of the winners. Students Win Cash for Business Ideas Students take a swing for their second chance to win big in The Pitch Photo by Lauren Jacobs Colon Cissel developed an idea for a more private personal assistant. First Place: Colson Cissel Colon Cissel, a senior computer science major, based his idea on voice control tech similar to automated per- sonal assistants like Siri and Alexa. Cissel said he’s always been interested in technology like this but has been con- cerned about how much data it collects. Cissel said computer science professor Dr. George Landon encouraged him to submit an idea to The Pitch. “He gave me a lot of really good advice and made some really good recommendations,” Cissel said. “It was really helpful to be able to work along with a professor who was able to help guide me through the process.” Cissel asked fellow computer science student and for- mer Pitch competitor Keeton Feaval for suggestions about how to improve on Feaval’s first attempt at the competi - tion the previous year. Cissel said the suggestions from Landon and Feaval helped him win. Cissel’s product would have similar functionality to Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home but would not make the same sacrifices in the privacy arena. “It’s actually very possible to set something like this up,” Cissel said. “I have a working proof of the idea and I’m excited to be able to work on the project in the future.” Cissel plans to use his $1,000 in prize money to con- tinue working on a prototype of his idea. As a senior, Cis- sel said he is excited for future opportunities and would like to continue working on this project if he can find a sponsor. He’s hopeful that The Pitch has set him on the right trajectory. “I’ve started putting together what will hopefully be something a lot closer to a production-ready version of the idea,” Cissel said. “Now that I have more time to work on it, I’m trying to work a bit slower and do things right so that it could be something that can actually be used, so that’s what I’m spending my free time on now.” Cissel said that his favorite part of being involved in The Pitch was interacting with other competitors. “Getting to interact with other people and their ideas and see what other people were innovating was really cool,” Cissel said. “Sometimes I try to be innovative in things I do, and it was just helpful to see so many cool ideas that they’re doing; it’s kind of inspiring.”