Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Speaking of pitch competitions, Mary Cayten Brakefield, Chief Executive Officer of Brakefields, represented the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in yesterday’s annual “SEC Student Pitch Competition.”

The event, held virtually for the first time, involves one student start-up from each of the Southeastern Conference schools. Brakefields is a company that produces functional fashion to address the unmet need of millions of individuals who live with disabilities.

Here’s some background on the start-up’s Founder. Yesterday’s event was hosted by the University of Georgia. Winner of the competition and the $5,000 first place prize was the Wave Timer from Vulcan Line Tools, developed by an Auburn University student to measure sag, temperature and tension in power lines.

The other finalists were:

• Second place ($2,000) – SKYPaws, a monitor for veterinarians developed by a team from Texas A&M University that captures heart rate, ECG, temperature and oxygen for pets; and
• Third Place ($1,000) – Debtle, a tool from Louisiana State University students to simplify, improve and automate the process of negotiating settlement of outstanding invoices and bad debts;

 

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