Local students place in MSOE Business Plan Competition

MILWAUKEE, WI (02/25/2013)(readMedia)-- Brad Meissner, mechanical engineering major, and Kevin Grimstad, electrical engineering major, both from Hartland, were part of a team of students who took 4th place in the 7th annual MSOE Business Plan Competition.

Their team, "Trace Engineering," took fourth place, winning $500 in the competition. Their plan offered engineering from three different disciplines with the purpose of designing and implementing new and innovative solutions for companies. Trace Engineering operates under two main divisions: contractual engineering and new product development. The company was founded to develop a smart textile sensor named the "Area Mat." The Area Mat is a flexible, formable textile sensor capable of outputting total area and pressure metrics of a force input to the mat. Trace Engineering has filed a provisional patent for the design, and is in the process of filing for a non-provisional patent. Other students involved include Tyler Hackbarth and Keenan Nemetz, software engineering majors.

The MSOE Business Plan Competition began earlier this school year when students and alumni were invited to present their business ideas. Nearly 100 students were part of the early stages of the competition. Five entries were selected as finalists and judged on both their plans and formal presentations. The MSOE Business Plan Competition is sponsored annually by MSOE's Uihlein/Spitzer Center for Entrepreneurship. Dr. Jeffrey Blessing, professor, Rader School of Business, serves as the competition coordinator.

Other 2013 MSOE Business Plan Winners were:

1st Place ($2,000) - Ferret Boards Motor Skateboard

Matthew Brazeau, Mike Cosentino and Jake Schneider, mechanical engineering majors

2nd Place ($1,500) - DeriGen-Cellulose Hydrogels

Jessica Axt, Kathleen Keough and Adam Schaenzer, biomolecular engineering majors

3rd Place ($1,000) - Impulse Gaming Concepts

Michael Fricke, Adam Resnick and Alex Weise, mechanical engineering majors

Tyler Mrowiec, architectural engineering and business management double major

Hannah Schermerhorn, electrical engineering and technical communication double major

5th place ($250) - Strategic Games Inc.

Adam Van Essen, M.S. in new product management major

MSOE is an independent, non-profit university with about 2,500 students. MSOE offers 20 bachelor's degrees and nine master's degrees in engineering, business, mathematics and nursing. The university has a national academic reputation; longstanding ties to business and industry; dedicated professors with real-world experience; a 94% placement rate; and the highest average starting and mid-career salaries of any Wisconsin university according to PayScale Inc. MSOE graduates are well-rounded, technologically experienced and highly productive professionals and leaders.