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Arkansas State, Harding Teams Take Top Awards at DWR Governor’s Cup

4 min read

Teams from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro and Harding University in Searcy took home top honors at the 2015 Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup collegiate business-plan competition awards luncheon Wednesday at the Statehouse Convention Center in downtown Little Rock.

The DWR Governor’s Cup is the most significant business-plan competition for college students in the state and the only such competition with statewide reach. It is presented by the Arkansas Economic Acceleration Foundation, an affiliate of the Arkansas Capital Corporation. This year, the competition drew 47 teams from 12 universities and colleges across the state.

ASU’s Agricultural Innovations, which has developed a sensor-driven, automated irrigation system, won first place and $25,000 in the graduate division. TIRE, which stands for Tire Inflation and Regulatory Equipment, won first place and $25,000 in the undergraduate division representing Harding.

The TIRE team developed a tire-inflation regulatory system for mountain bikes.

Agricultural Innovations team members are Dirk Tanner, Justin Bagley, Kenneth Rains, Josh Baker and Franklin Kelley. TIRE team members are Cody Veteto, Andrew Brackins, Zachary Clevinger, Austin Yates and Bradley Wheeler.

More: Click here for a full list of winning teams and team members.

The win by Agricultural Innovations broke a streak of 11 straight graduate-level wins by teams from the University of Arkansas, and represents the first ASU team to advance to the DWR Tri-State Governor’s Cup in Las Vegas. The Tri-State competition pits the top two graduate and undergraduate teams from Governor’s Cup competitions in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Nevada.

“We saw a need and had the desire behind our idea to help farmers and the farming community,” said Baker, who came up with the idea and build a team around him, including Rains, who played football at ASU, to develop it. “With those kinds of intentions, we knew we could only do good things.”

ASU faculty advisor Erick Chang said the team recognized a need in the market and built the right team to make its product, called WellsVision, a reality. Agricultural Innovations brought a working prototype to their Governor’s Cup presentations.

“We started this thing in August and thought we had something,” he said. “Josh came up with the idea and put together a good team.”

Joining Agricultural Solutions and TIRE in Las Vegas will be Kordate Solutions from the UA, which took second place and $15,000 in prize money in the graduate division, and Charlie’s Choices from John Brown University in Siloam Springs, which won second place and $15,000 in the undergraduate division.

Kordate has created a a therapeutic Alzheimer’s drug, and Charlie’s Choices is developing a patent-pending visual sleep timer called Charge-Me-Charlie that shows kids how long they need to stay in bed to maintain proper rest.

Overall, ASU and the UA each brought home four total awards from the 2015 competition. JBU and Harding each won two. Last year, UA teams won eight total awards.

The Governor’s Cup was established in 2001, and historically UA teams have set a high bar in the competition, especially in the graduate division under the leadership of faculty advisor Carol Reeves. Many teams have gone on to success at national and international competitions. While JBU has enjoyed success on the undergrad level, other schools in Arkansas are rising to meet that bar. 

“More and more schools are preparing for this competition, and we’re seeing a lot of excellent teams from all colleges in Arkansas,” said Arkansas Capital President Sam Walls. “The people in this room today know they are seeing some real good ideas, and they’re here to hear them. People know there are usually some ideas with legs that come out of this.”

About 1,000 people filled the Wally Allen Ballroom of the Statehouse Convention Center for the event, which was not presided over by Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Walls said the governor was scheduled to preside but was called away at the last minute. Hutchinson sent a video message in his place.

Mike Preston, newly hired director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, served as emcee, and Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin helped present awards. Walls said former Gov. Mike Beebe made six of eight Governor’s Cup awards luncheons during his time in office.

Judges for the competition included private business and state government leaders from across the state.

Other Winners

Third-place finishers in the graduate and undergraduate divisions, respectively, were Baby Booster (prenatal protein supplement) from the UA, and Opt-In (a web-based professional development services for women in the consumer packaged goods and retail industries) from JBU. Each won $10,000.

Baby Booster from the UA won first place and $5,000 in the Arkansas Farm Bureau Agriculture Awards, while Agricultural Innovations from ASU placed second and won $3,000.

The Delta Plastics Innovation Award winners were Agricultural Innovations in the graduate division and Connor Innovations (a device that clears debris and sediment from low-water bridges and culverts) from the UA in the undergraduate division. Each won $5,000.

The AT&T Elevator Pitch Award winners were ASU’s Saf-Tech (a device that blocks texts and calls of driving teens) in the graduate level and TIRE in undergraduate. Each took home $2,000.

The C. Sam Walls Entrepreneur Educator Award, in its second year, went to Eva Fast of JBU and Bryan McKinney of Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia. Last year’s inaugural winners were Carol Reeves of the UA and Allen Frazier of Harding.

John Riggins of the Riggins Group in Little Rock teaches and entrepreneurship course at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville and served as faculty advisor for two Tech teams that reached the undergrad semifinals and undergrad innovation finals.

He noted the increased level of competition across the state and its long-term positive impact for the state.

“Our kids had a great experience,” Riggins said. “The competition really encouraged them and also challenged them to see where the bar was set. It pushed them. It’s great to see them grow through this competition.”

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