Florek Makes Semifinals in Accelerate Michigan Competition

HOUGHTON, MI (11/02/2011)(readMedia)-- Marquette's Joel Florek and another Michigan Tech student are among the semifinalists in a statewide Accelerate Michigan competition. They will present their business plans at an event in Ypsilanti, Mich., on Nov. 16-17. Accelerate Michigan is a business plan competition for companies and students, designed to spotlight Michigan as a state that welcomes innovation-based business growth.

Florek and Travis Beaulieu's start-up company, AsfalisMed, uses encrypted Quick Response (QR) codes placed on ID cards to give medical first responders and health care personnel instant access to a person's medical records. Beaulieu, an applied physics major with a concentration in entrepreneurship and a minor in mathematics, and Florek, a first-year mechanical engineering major and member of the Pavlis Institute for Global Leadership, are working with the Michigan Tech Enterprise Corporation (MTEC) SmartZone's Entrepreneur Support Center and another student company, Clever Cloud Computing, to develop their business.

Another company, GreenSand, started by Michigan Tech alumnus Domenic Popko and Associate Professor Ralph Hodek (civil engineering), plans to recover copper-containing sand from the Gay Stamp Sands near Lake Linden, Mich., to use as raw material in making roofing shingles and other products. The copper in the sand, a by-product of copper mining in the region, acts as a natural inhibitor of algae and mold growth, making it a useful additive for construction materials.

The students' projects will be judged on innovativeness, clarity of presentation, value and feasibility of the proposed product or service and market opportunity. Companies will be evaluated on innovation, proof of concept and financial plan.

Prizes in the student section range from $10,000 to $25,000. Companies are competing for $10,000 to $500,000.

Michigan Technological University (www.mtu.edu) is a leading public research university developing new technologies and preparing students to create the future for a prosperous and sustainable world. Michigan Tech offers more than 130 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in engineering; forest resources; computing; technology; business; economics; natural, physical and environmental sciences; arts; humanities; and social sciences.