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Diagnostic for All Wins Entrepreneurship Competition

A startup focusing on cheap, dispensable tests wins MIT prize.

By Kristina Grifantini

Diagnostic for All (DFA), a startup from Harvard University that I wrote about recently, won the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition last night. DFA, which aims to develop cheap paper diagnostic tools for impoverished countries, differed from most of the competition because it is a not-for-profit. The coinventors of the paper test, George Whitesides and Hayat Sindi, say that it could be used to diagnose, for example, drug-induced liver damage, a major problem that often goes undetected in the developing world. Apparently, their business plan convinced the judges that it is a worthwhile, substantive venture.

The $10,000 Audience Prize went to Covalent Solar, a team that is working on more-efficient thin-film concentrator photovoltaic modules.

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Sounds promising...

I've always been impressed with the concepts generated by such competitions. I've been reading about some of the winning entries of this year's Intel Science and Engineering Fair that was held this past week in Atlanta and I have to continually stop and remind myself that these scientists and inventors aren't even old enough to vote yet. Quite a promising young collective.

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austinb
05/16/2008
Posts:1

Re: Sounds promising...

Focus on what you enjoy and stay in that realm. Then think of ideas that would make this more enjoyable, easier, convenient, etc. The main idea of promoting enrepreneurship is there is money to be made in what you know and enjoy.
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ceejay2005
12/22/2008
Posts:1

[no subject]

While the $100K competition is held in the spring (or second semester of the academic year), the MIT $1K Business Idea Competition is a "warm-up event" held in the Fall.
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jeffreyfrog
01/06/2009
Posts:1