Competitions

Students hold up their award.

Here is how you prove yourself.

Working hard and taking risks are what entrepreneurship is all about. Competitions are a great way to practice these important skills.

Competitions

Innovation Sprints

Innovation Sprints challenge teams of students to flex their interdisciplinary skills and talents to come up with viable solutions to actual problems or questions posed by business leaders from local organizations, by offices on campus, or by faculty members. These fast-paced, engaging events are similar in format to a “hackathon” – but without the need for technical expertise.

The Henry A. Panasci Jr. Technology Entrepreneurship Competition

The Panasci Technology Entrepreneurship Competition (Panasci TEC) brings together UB students from all academic disciplines to pool their talents and create viable businesses in Western New York. The competition for seed funding and in-kind support celebrates business concepts in their earliest stages of ideation and centers around sound technologies and innovations that address local and global problems. 

Three Minute Thesis Competition

An 80,000-word thesis would take nine hours to present. We want it done in three minutes. The Graduate School and Startup & Innovation CoLab powered by Blackstone LaunchPad host the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition, in which PhD students are asked to effectively explain their research in three minutes using language tailored to a non-specialist audience. Participants earn a unique and invaluable chance to perfect their presentation and research communication skills, and winners walk away with cash prizes.

Bulls Launch

This pitch competition provides UB students with the opportunity to pitch their idea for cash prizes. Students have 90 seconds to talk about their idea—without props, presentations or note cards. Finalists pitch their idea before a live audience for a chance to win up to $1,500. 

WNY Student 2 Biz

The WNY Student 2 Biz Challenge is a collaboration of Western New York colleges and universities to promote entrepreneurship. Student teams compete in the following categories:

  • Information technology/software.
  • Social entrepreneurship/nonprofit.
  • Clean technology.
  • Advanced technology.
  • Products.
  • Services.

The WNY Student 2 Biz Challenge encourages graduate and undergraduate students to submit business plans for a student-born innovation that addresses a currently unmet need. Each group must have a faculty advisor. Winning teams from the regional event in are invited to pitch their venture to an external panel of investor judges at the New York Business Plan Competition for a chance to win more than $500,000 in prizes.

Pitch for a Purpose

Solve a global issue! Teams of three students from diverse academic backgrounds choose an idea that relates to one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, then develop and pitch potential solutions. This event is hosted in collaboration with UB Sustainability and UB's Office of International Scholar Services.