CHICAGO — A business student’s self-powered water detector won top honors in the third annual Chicago Student Innovation Awards sponsored by DePaul University’s Center for Creativity and Innovation in the Driehaus College of Business. The competition was cosponsored by the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center, Chicago Innovation Awards Foundations and TCF Inventory Finance.

The awards recognize innovative efforts by DePaul students. Projects were judged on the problem addressed, new value delivered, and uniqueness and feasibility of the solution, according to Lisa Gundry, director of the center and a professor of management.

Gold Level scholarship prize winner George Sobolevskiy, a business major, won a $5,000 scholarship for his self-powering electrochemical water detector that alerts homeowners of water leaks and can be placed in hard-to-reach locations on a property.

Silver level scholarship prize winners were Christopher Fanucchi, Driehaus College of Business, for “Car Roulette,” which lets car buyers experience a variety of makes and models of vehicles when purchasing new cars, and Paul Nordlund, Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, for “Inflightables,” inflatable infant seats for airline flights. They each received a $2,500 scholarship.

Bronze level winners receiving $1,000 scholarships were:

● Jai Chandarana, College of Computing and Digital Media, for “DeClub App,” a mobile application that allows students better interaction with DePaul clubs, organizations and Greek life.

● Anabella Rojas Elias, Driehaus College of Business, for “The Roof Project,” a social innovation to eradicate slums by providing construction training, employment and quality affordable housing that offers a sustainable, long-term solution to improve living conditions.

● Michael Landers, School for New Learning, for “PIXME2,” a state-of-the-art video entertainment database that provides web-based video and location casting applications to the film, TV, theater and advertising markets.

● Riley Masunaga, Driehaus College of Business, for “Trainmation,” an application focused on crowd-sourced flip-book animations on subway tunnel walls.

● Marc Pucciarelli, Driehaus College of Business, for “Flavor XPlosion,” gum flavorings that let people with allergies experience the flavor of foods they cannot eat.

● Keith Weber, Driehaus College of Business, for “Dragon Research and Development Aquaponics System,” which lets people grow food without soil affordably, sustainably and scalable to any lifestyle.

The winning students pitched their ideas to an audience of 300 people, including students and members of the business community. The event included a panel of innovators and entrepreneurs, and was held at the 1871 incubator in the Merchandise Mart. This year’s competition drew a record number of nominations, with more than 80 students or student teams submitting innovative ideas.

“The number and quality of applications we received this year has been outstanding and surpassed all my expectations,” said Javier Monllor, assistant professor of management. “The awards are evidence of why DePaul continues to be at the forefront of entrepreneurship education in the country.”

Entries were judged by innovation and entrepreneurship experts drawn from the advisory boards of the Center for Creativity and Innovation and Coleman Entrepreneurship Center, DePaul alumni, and the Chicago innovation community. Alumni judges included Paul DeCrette, Rania El-Sorroggy, Brad Emanuel, Bhusha Mehta and Robert Perrelli.

“We are so impressed and proud of our students’ creativity and interest in solving challenging problems,” Gundry said. “It is an integral part of the Center for Creativity and Innovation’s mission to foster students’ innovative ideas and to celebrate and recognize these efforts. This program is designed to encourage that, and we want to help them be successful innovators.”

The $16,000 in award scholarships was provided by the Chicago Innovation Awards Foundation, Coleman Entrepreneurship Center and TCF Inventory Finance.

“All businesses begin with the glimmer of an idea in the mind of the entrepreneur, and this competition demonstrates that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive throughout the DePaul campus,” said Terri Lonier, director of the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center.

The Center for Creativity and Innovation teaches innovative strategies and tools for breakthrough thinking. It offers a variety of programming, workshops and customized training and consultation for individuals, teams and organizations. The center’s staff includes award-winning experts in creativity and innovation who are professors and practitioners affiliated with DePaul’s Driehaus College of Business. They bring the most contemporary and proven techniques to the center’s programs.

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