Spring 2021 Demo Day Recap
Texas Convergent hosted its semi-annual virtual Demo Day this past month, displaying a range of technology-based projects that were built by Computer Science, Business, and Design students at the University of Texas at Austin.
Over the course of the semester, students in the Build Team program go through ideation and product development processes to build out a Minimum Viable Product, targeting a problem they have identified in the case team they are a part of. This semester, our cases included AI-powered Tech, Data Analysis, Small Business Tech, Productivity Tech, and Social Impact Tech.
On the other hand, student startup founders in our Incubator program are connected to engineers, designers, and product managers to help build out, add features to, and scale their products.
The culmination of these programs is Demo Day, where teams showcase their work and pitch their product to a panel of diverse judges.
A livestream of the whole event can be accessed here: https://fb.watch/5yFEDh5bln/
Here are some highlights from the event:
Block A & Block B:
Ten Build Teams across the five cases pitched their MVPs to a panel of judges virtually.
Block C:
Four Incubator company founders pitched their startups and highlighted the work our Incubator officers had collaborated with them on.
Spring 2021 Incubator Pods
Big & Mini is a platform that creates meaningful, 1:1 connections between young adults (Minis) and older adults (Bigs). By virtually linking college students in need of guidance with older adults wanting to connect, our users can share stories, laugh, and come together.
OctoShop/InStok aggregates pricing and inventory information across retailers to show users a list of all the places they can find their products along with pricing and inventory information for each store.
ReView is a consumer-facing mobile app that allows a user to take a picture of any item and tells them if it’s recyclable, compostable, or trash while accounting for their location.
Tuktuk is a carpooling service tailored for UT Austin students! Over this semester, we have continued to validate the product-market fit of our second student carpooling idea.
Build Team Award Ceremony:
Best Technology:
QuickNotes summarizes notes from the audio of the zoom recording and presents the user notes from the audio.
Team: Jatin Kulkarni, Sanya Srivastava, Shamira Kabir, Chetan Goenka, Hector Guerra, Jack Cooney, Jay Daryanani
Best Business:
Studius is an all-in-one study site that allows users to stay more focused on their work by providing one place to focus on study goals, schedule a work session, and compile study playlists.
Team: Anchit Nath, Neer Jain, Samritha Palakollu, Ryan Jacob, Zenith Jahid, Mark Cheng, Helen Schawe
Best Design:
ReciPZ is an app that can identify food within the user’s pantry to find recipes and can also filter recipes.
Team: Yash Aggarwal, Varha Chinthapenta, Olivia Du, Sam Pippen, Vibhuti Sharma
Best Overall:
mindbloom is an app that encourages users to prioritize and foster ownership over their mental health by growing and nourishing a creative digital garden.
Team: Bruce Moe, Varsha Narayanan, Ritika Chopra, Sandra Cong, Dina Hormuzdi, Rushil Nakkana, Uzma Sheikh
