Two teams with Computer Science majors won top prizes at Johns Hopkins University Business Plan Competition, hosted by JHU’s Center for Leadership Education (CLE), held April 1st at its Homewood Campus. They competed with 28 other teams from Hopkins, Harvard, MIT, Tulane University, University of Arkansas and Stanford University. Each had only 7 minutes to pitch their business plans to a panel of judges, who were comprised of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders, including alumni of Hopkins.

The CS students entered in to the competition their award-winning projects from their CS Innovation and Entrepreneurship class taught by Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute’s Executive Director, Anton Dahbura and CLE’s Director of International of Programs, Lawrence Aronhime. “It was extremely gratifying to me that the students that Larry Aronhime and I worked with over the past two semesters were so prominently recognized for their efforts in this competition. They worked especially hard and deserve the accolades,” said Anton Dahbura.

Second place winners in the General Business category were CS majors John An and Blaine Muri. Their team’s project, “Mivva” is an online video recommendation tool that hopes to revolutionize how users discover content on the internet.

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(Team Footprint. From left to right.) Stephanie Chew, Elana Stroud, and Nikita Singh.

CS majors Stephanie Chew, Nikita Singh, and Elana Stroud also won second place in the Social Enterprise category. Their team’s project, “Footprint” changes the way cities pay for trash management with data analytics. Equipped with this knowledge, residents can learn to change their waste habits and cities can incentivize less waste. Second prize winners received $4,000.

The JHU Business Competition provides an opportunity for students to take a novel idea or innovative technology and develop a business plan based around it. “The competition was a way for us to network with experienced social entrepreneurs and gain advice in areas that we are not as familiar in, like city regulations,” said Stephanie Chew. Starting with a concept, students build an understanding of their target market, analyze potential competitors, craft an effective market entry strategy, and present their plans to industry professionals and venture capitalists. For more information about this year’s Competition, visit: http://bpc.jhu.edu/.

Congratulations to all of the winners!