On March 1, student competitors had an opportunity to present entrepreneurial concepts at a Shark Tech Venture Pitch Competition, an event where the panel of judges listen to business pitches and help prepare teams for the Catalyze Challenge. Six teams that successfully navigated Shark Tech are moving on compete in front of a panel of judges for the Catalyze competition on April 20.
The Catalyze Challenge fosters project development, design, and communications skills, while boosting public understanding of the talent pipeline available at Oregon Tech.
Below are business concept summaries submitted by each team.
- Tarrah Bickford, Environmental Science 2027: Fearless Retreats
Fearless Retreats is a full-service retreat planning service for corporations, organizations, and groups of any size.
Fearless Retreats aims to make corporate and organizational retreat planning a one-stop shop regardless of group size or industry. Fearless Retreat plans travel, accommodations, meals, and all events tailored to achieving organizational goals. During the retreats, guests experience the best of Klamath Falls and the Basin as they are hosted and led by a certified retreat facilitator.
- Xavier De La Rosa, Business 2024: TapIn
TapIn is an organizational application that allows athletes to record their statistics during training, journal food intake, monitor sleep, and set goals for a specific time frame. Additionally, coaches can support their team by posting workouts and expectancies for each player.
TapIn places each player's portfolio on a global cloud server for college recruitment. An athlete's profile can include in-game statistics, workout plans, weight, height, GPA, and other information for coaches to review. Like many social media applications, an athlete's media can be posted for entertainment purposes for like-minded athletes to view.
- Ethan Hartline, Renewable Energy Engineering 2025: Eco Spoke
Electric bicycles, while a cheaper form of transportation than a car, are still relatively expensive for consumers. The average college student may want to commute to school in a way other than by car but may find walking to be too far and biking too difficult without electric assistance.
Eco Spoke aims to design, manufacture, and sell consumer bikes with electric assistance in Klamath Falls. The goal is to make them as inexpensive as possible to maximize the adoption rate by students.
- Claire Lowry, Business Management 2024: Juniper Joy
Juniper Joy seeks to make health products from Western Juniper and big sagebrush. This business is unique because Western Juniper and big sagebrush are not typically used for essential oils, teas, or other health/beauty-related products.
The market for this product consists of anyone interested in natural, health-related products. People interested in improving their personal health without buying expensive, chemical-ridden products will be drawn to what Juniper Joy offers.
- Lauren Sadrin, Mechanical Engineering 2023, and Mauricio Huntoon-DeRoche, Mechanical Engineering 2024: Deep Dive Robotics
Deep Dive Robotics is revolutionizing underwater exploration with its autonomous robotic submarine that utilizes advanced visual recognition technology. The submarine is designed to inspect and collect data from various water bodies for a multitude of purposes, including environmental assessments, search and rescue missions, dam and watercraft inspections, and monitoring fish populations.
With a focus on the challenges faced by the Klamath Basin, the submarine will play a crucial role in addressing the complex issues of its lakes.
- Clairise Tapken, Cybersecurity 2023: Actually Confidential Attachments (ACA)
ACA is designed to be a safer, more private, and secure messing system. ACA achieves this in two ways, first by giving power to the user by allowing them to choose if others can or cannot screenshot, download, or share their images. Second, ACA utilizes both encryption and local databases to keep centralized database message storing out of the picture.
ACA's initial theory was to work within health care to provide a more secure messaging option for patients to communicate with their doctors. However, this idea can easily expand to other businesses that either wish to have a generally more secure way to message internally or externally with customers or to help with non-disclosure agreements.
