NeXT Pitch Competition

Pitch Your Neurotechnology, Blockchain, eXtended Reality (XR) Ideas

Overview

The Neurotechnology Exploration Team proposes to host a pitch competition on April 20th, 2022. Neurotechnology is a rapidly growing and highly multidisciplinary field with new businesses and capital rapidly flowing into the space. During the last 8 years, the amount of investments in NeuroTech companies increased seven times from $1.1 billion in 2014 to $7.1 billion in 2021, which shows that interest in the NeuroTech industry is steadily growing (Neurotech Analytics Ltd).

Neurotechnology has a great potential to help people and revolutionize the way we live, which is why it is so crucial to show the next generation of doers the potential of this technology and industry. It is driving new innovations across many industries including medicine, cognitive enhancement, and metaverse technologies like extended reality (XR), augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR). We want this pitch competition to be a way for students to think creatively about brain-computer interfaces, neurotechnology and XR technologies and their applicability in future technology landscapes. All current RIT students are eligible to participate in the competition.




Competition Rules:

  • All current RIT students are eligible to compete

  • Teams may only pitch once

  • Individuals may be a part of a maximum of two teams

  • Reward will be split 50/50 between NXT and the winning teams

  • Teams may divide their portion of the funding amongst individual members however they see fit (NXT is not responsible for this)

  • Participants/teams must complete a form notifying event coordinators of their concept no later than March 31st at 11:59PM.

  • Slides must be shared with and an email notifying event coordinators of the slidedeck must be sent to neurotechnologyexploration@gmail.com


Judging Criteria

A group of industry professionals with backgrounds in neurotechnology/neuroscience, entrepreneurship, venture capital, and technology development will be selected to judge the competition. Judges may be in person or over video chat. Their scores will be recorded in a spreadsheet which will automatically calculate a winner. If there is a tie, the judges will have a secondary vote. The president of NXT will announce the winners of the event.



Pitch Format

Pitch Slides

Contestants will present with a slide deck that they create on their own. It may not include videos or audio. They will have the freedom to create these slides however they wish, but we will provide recommendations that they adopt elements of standard business pitch slides which will be provided in a template.

Template:

Contestants will be sent a template slide deck including example basic business information typical of a pitch slide deck.

Time

Contestants will be cut off at the 6-minute mark.

Pitch Demo.pptx

Awards

Prizes will be in the amounts listed below. Within these amounts, half will be given to NXT to use for the project or general club use. The other half will go to the participant(s) of the winning teams.

Sponsorship

Sponsors of the NXT event will have their branding represented on all promotional materials and media. Financial sponsorship will support the Neurotechnology Exploration Team’s continued efforts to provide students with hands-on learning about neurotechnology. Donation of technology will be provided to student teams.


How to sponsor:

Online Portal (Donate by credit card or PayPal):

  1. Notify NXT members, the club president, and the advisor by email of sponsorship details

    1. neurotechnologyexploration@gmail.com

    2. arb8590@g.rit.edu (Alex Burbano, President)

    3. dpbeee@rit.edu (Dr. Dan Phillips, Club Advisor)

  2. Go to this link: https://tigers.rit.edu/site/SPageNavigator/RIT_donate.html

  3. Select “Additional Designations”

  4. Search for and select BCI Mind Controlled Computing NXT

  5. Check “This is a corporate gift” (if applicable)

  6. Input company name

  7. Input information from person carrying out the sponsorship/donation

  8. Submit

***Donations are non-refundable



Sponsorship/Donation Via Check


  1. Notify NXT members, the club president, and the advisor by email of sponsorship details

    1. neurotechnologyexploration@gmail.com

    2. arb8590@g.rit.edu (Alex Burbano, President)

    3. dpbeee@rit.edu (Dr. Dan Phillips, Club Advisor)

  2. Provide

    1. Your organization’s name

    2. Your organization’s mailing address

    3. The title of the individual from your organization connected connected with the donation

Checks will be made out to:

Pay to the order of: RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology)

Memo line: Neurotechnology Exploration Team

Checks should be addressed to:

Rochester Institute of Technology - Neurotechnology Exploration Team

Attn: Dawn Rizzo

Campus Center Bldg.03 – Room 1610

127 Lomb Memorial Drive

Rochester, NY 14623-5608


Hardware/Software Donations:

Please reach out to the following people to organize product donations:

  • neurotechnologyexploration@gmail.com

  • arb8590@g.rit.edu (Alex Burbano, President)

  • dpbeee@rit.edu (Dr. Dan Phillips, Club Advisor)


2022 winners

1st Place: Hannah Henczel and Tim Carr

2nd Place: Hannah Henczel, Sandhya Vaidyanathan, Eric Choi , Leanna Frasch, Luca Chiossone

3rd Place: Justin Vida