UPDATE: The Calvin University team took fourth place in the E-Fest competition.
The Calvin University team calls its invention “BiliRoo,” a medical device that uses filtered sunlight as phototherapy to treat neonatal jaundice while allowing skin-to-skin contact with parents.
The treatment is nicknamed “kangaroo care.”
Team member Daniel John says it can be an important tool in low resource areas without reliable electricity.
“There's limited personnel and machines are expensive and so in the U.S. what would be an easy treatment of phototherapy machines is not possible in lower income settings. There’re 6 million infants without access every year and so BiliRoo aims to bridge that gap.”
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Calvin’s project was chosen from hundreds of entries nationwide competing in the Schulze Entrepreneurship Challenge at e-Fest in Minneapolis.
Calvin advanced after winning $10,000 in the first-round pitch competition.
As a top 25 finalist, the team will pitch their venture to a panel of judges similar to the TV show “Shark Tank,” competing for a $50,000 first place prize.
Even organizer Danielle Campaeu, Dean of the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Thomas, says the event provides $220,000 to student entrepreneurs but it's more than just the money.
"They get opportunities to network, to engage in professional development workshops as well and so it's just a really great weekend and we hope it's truly transformational for many of these teams competing here."
John says there’s a patent pending for the BiliRoo and the team is collaborating with physicians from around the world.
“In the next few months, we hope to do clinical trials on patients in Sub Saharan Africa to prove its efficacy on the patients themselves and then we hope to be having a launch to market next year to help the infants that needed the most.”
