University of Arkansas Team Wins National Business Plan Competition - University of Arkansas Daily Headlines
Annual New Ventures World Competition.Their plan for Elevate Medical would first produce a wheelchair that converts to a stretcher form, alleviating much of the pain and risk that nursing staff members endure in lifting patients.
“It is amazing that this team beat a medical team from Johns Hopkins University as well as teams from University of Iowa and University of Nebraska in the finals,” said Carol Reeves, the Walton College faculty sponsor.
Jacob McConnell and Joe Willmann, both honors undergraduate students in Walton College, and Chris Nelson, an undergraduate student in biological engineering, traveled to Lincoln, Neb., March 26-28, to compete against some of the top business schools in the nation. They proposed that their product, LiftAssist, would alleviate patient-handling injuries that cost the health care industry more than $20 billion a year.
In the first round, they beat teams from Wake Forest University, University of Michigan and University of Portland. Other schools participating were from University of British Columbia and Queen’s University, two top Canadian schools; Syracuse University; Haverford University; and Bowling Green University.
