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Huntsville EMBA Team Competes in Global Venture Challenge
 

 

The University of Alabama was selected as one of 12 universities out of 44, to advance to the semi-final round of the 2010 Global Venture Challenge, March 25-26.  Hosted by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Huntsville EMBA team was selected to compete in the Energy Tract, for their commercialized plan for a "Piezoelectric Smart Water Meter.” The team, Kent Darzi, Katy Dunn, Clay Knight and Gabe Collins, are students in the UA Executive MBA Program in Huntsville.   UA started its Huntsville EMBA program, in cooperation with UAHuntsville in 2008.  According to Darzi, engineering manager at ADTRAN, "Our product is an eco-friendly, remotely monitorable, smart water meter that allows utility companies to collect time-of-day usage for both home and commercial water consumers. Additionally, the piezoelectric water meter converts water pressure into electricity to recharge the circuitry of the system.” The teams were judged by panels of energy executives, venture capitalists, technologists, entrepreneurs and legal experts. Although the team did not win the grand prize, "there were "lots of interests and some good comments, " said Dunn, general engineer, U.S. Army.  During the competition the H-EMBA team was approached by venture capitalist on how to commercialize and advertise their product.  "Since our return, we have met with venture capitalist from Huntsville and Knoxville,” said Darzi. Susan West, assistant dean at UA's Manderson Graduate School said we are extremely proud of our executive students, as traditionally these competitions are for full time MBA students. "When you consider that they are balancing family, full time careers, and the EMBA program, it is a truly remarkable achievement," she said.
(Photo: H-EMBA team at Global Venture Challenge, l-r: Kent Darzi, Katy Dunn and Clay Knight)
 

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UA-based team Places Third at Contest: Sutterlin Technologies, a start-up company housed at the University of Alabama's high-technology business incubator, won third place in the Alabama Launchpad business plan competition, which concluded Friday. (read more)

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2010 EMBA Classes Visit Sao Paulo
The 2010 Huntsville and Tuscaloosa EMBA Classes recently returned from their international study abroad trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Fifty students, faculty and staff met with senior officials at 13 companies, including the Brazilian Central Bank, Cosan, Bombril, ABB, TAM and Azul Airlines, Alstom, and McCann Erickson.  As part of their Global Business course in their final semester, students working in teams, conduct an indepth study on one of the industries or companies they will be visiting on the international trip.
Photo: EMBA Study Team meeting with Azul Airlines in Brazil, from left to right, Vickie Gesellschap, David Neeleman (Founder and Chairman of the Board of Azul Airlines), Michael Berkholtz, Paul Andrezejewski and Jason Benson.

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UA Team Places Second in International Competition. (read more)

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Exciting News! Manderson MBA program was ranked 66th overall, 33rd among public universities, and 5th in the SEC! Click here for the Manderson listing. (read more)

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Student Commuting To Alabama From Belgium For MBA: Most college students cross campus to get to class... She flies in from Belgium. (read more)

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Biz School Research Add Value to Student Degrees: Study of Business School Faculty Habits and the Influence of such Activities on Value of Degrees.  (read more)

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We Want to Set You  Apart from the Competition! Announcing A New Career Resource: OneWire The Manderson Graduate School of Business has been chosen as a select MBA Program to offer this service to our alumni.   OneWire is offering a free webinar to alumni of select colleges and universities. (read more)

The UA trustees changed the name of River Road Park East on Friday to The park at Manderson Landing in honor of Faye and Lewis Manderson whose latest charitable gift to the University makes a total contribution of roughly 12 million dollars. (read more)