April 25, 2008
Bowling
Green, Ky. - Ron Rizzo, staff engineer in Western Kentucky University’s Department of Engineering, won
the Governor’s Innovation Award in the inaugural statewide business plan contest for entrepreneurs.
The competition, called “Idea State U,” is designed to help identify and support the next generation of Kentucky innovators and entrepreneurs. The event was sponsored and managed by the Department of Commercialization and Innovation within the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.
Rizzo received the first Governor’s Innovation Award for his concept, Ability Robotics, and a cash prize of $1,752.19 for his second-place finish in the competition’s Undergraduate Business Concept category. His proposed venture plans to create and market a remote-controlled robot to perform tasks for disabled people.
His entry was judged to best demonstrate innovative thinking, possess a “wow” factor, and have the potential to improve the quality of life for Kentuckians and others.
Rizzo, a Houston native who moved to Bowling Green in the late 1980s, and Frankfort senior Michael Beauchamp represented WKU in the two-day competition. Awards were presented April 19 in Louisville.
Beauchamp’s business plan outlined details for a venture named Alpha Media, a mobile advertising company that increases funding for schools by adding parent- approved advertising to school buses. After he graduates in May, Beauchamp plans to move to Houston to launch the business.
According to Alpha Media’s business plan, securing advertisers for 200 buses would result in $750,000 in gross revenue – 60 percent of which would go back to the school district.
The WKU students, with the help of faculty advisor J. Krist Schell, spent months developing their business concepts.
“This is where creative new ideas become next-generation businesses. One day the commonwealth will see these entrepreneurs and their ideas creating new jobs for Kentuckians,” said John Hindman, secretary of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. “These awards will help support the students as they work to turn their business dream into a real-world company.”
Rizzo and Beauchamp are members of WKU’s 2008 Students in Free Enterprise team, which recently won the regional SIFE competition in Cincinnati and advanced to the national finals May 12-15 in Chicago.
“It's really been a great opportunity to watch the plans develop 
over the last several months,” said Schell, WKU’s SIFE team coordinator. “Most schools’ teams have been working on their plans for a considerable length of time. Both Ron and Michael and everyone else in the business college’s first business plan competition course started in late January and have produced some excellent results, and notably, everyone worked alone on his or her venture. I couldn’t be happier with the quality of the learning experience and look forward to carrying the initiative into the fall and beyond.”
Beauchamp won the local business plan competition, held earlier this month at Bowling Green Country Club, and a cash prize of $4,000 to be used toward implementation of his business plan. He did not place in the state competition but was praised by the judges for his outstanding presentation skills and clarity of concept.
The local business plan competition was sponsored as a joint event through the WKU’s Gordon Ford College of Business and Ogden College of Science and Engineering.
Rizzo and Beauchamp were among nearly 50 participants in the state competition. “Idea State U” featured five teams of graduate students and 10 teams of undergraduates from six of Kentucky’s universities. Nearly $100,000 in prize money was awarded.
“The judges and I were extremely impressed with the presentations by both WKU students,” said Deborah Clayton, commissioner of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development’s Department of Commercialization and Innovation. “Both of these students possessed forward thinking, energy and passion, all necessary ingredients to make their dream a reality. I am absolutely convinced that their work can ultimately have a profound impact on Kentucky’s regional, national and global economic competitiveness.”
The 2006 Kentucky General Assembly funded the concept for the “Idea State U” competition to encourage a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship that will help sustain Kentucky’s future economy in the global marketplace. The cash awards make Kentucky’s “Idea State U” one of the nation’s top state-sponsored business plan competitions. The competition website is at www.IdeaStateU.com.
Photo captions:
Ron Rizzo, staff engineering in WKU’s Department of Engineering, won the Governor’s Innovation Award.
WKU’s Ron Rizzo (center) accepts the Governor’s Innovation Award from Deborah Clayton of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development (right). Krist Schell, WKU SIFE coordinator, is on the left.
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact Krist Schell at (270) 745-6864 or Lynn Minton at (270) 745-1902.
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