Thirteen companies founded by Johns Hopkins University (JHU) pupils received close to $170,000 in total award money during FastForward U’s second annual Innovation & Entrepreneurship Challenge.
The contest featured companies in fields ranging from medtech to social networking. More than 50 student startups applied for five awards that each offered cash prizes worth as much as $30,000.
The grand Bisciotti Foundation Prize for Student Entrepreneurship, which offers $30,000 for first place and $20,000 for second, recognizes promising companies that plan to stay in Baltimore and already earned some amount of money before applying. First place went to Eyedea Medical, a medtech startup that works to ease the burden of corneal blindness and has already started human trials. Sequoia Neurovitality, which uses acoustic stimulation with a smart headband to tackle older adults’ cognitive decline by improving deep sleep, took second place.
