LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A team of University of Louisville graduate entrepreneurship students won $10,000 in a venture competition to continue working on a business that helps restaurants save money through better management of cooking oil.
The KYchen team took first prize in the graduate division of the Alltech Innovation Competition 2016, which was held in Lexington on April 9. The UofL team was competing against three other Kentucky universities.
The business would help restaurants reduce cooking oil-related costs by more than 50 percent through a patent-protected oil filtration and transport device and related services.
The team is made up of three students pursuing MBA degrees in entrepreneurship who were advised by Suzanne Bergmeister, UofL’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence. The students are Tedd Pollard, Aaron Searcy and Sanjay Singh.
The Alltech Innovation Competition started in 2013. Competitions for 2013 and 2014 were held in Kentucky and Ireland. Last year, a competition was added in India.
UofL also won the competition in 2014 with restaurant-related idea. Trifecta Cooking Equipment featured a patented deep fryer designed to save restaurants 40 percent of their annual cooking costs.
Sharon Kerrick, assistant director of the Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship at the College of Business, was emcee for the 2016 program.
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