TU Students Win $3,000 in Business Plan Contest

Monday, November 05, 2007

University of Tulsa students have won thousands of dollars and the opportunity to bring their ideas to life through a contest by Tulsa-based Anyware Mobile Solutions. TU had 12 teams enter the contest, which challenged students to design creative business plans for using a mobile phone software application, ReForm XT, that develops data entry forms.

"The students received hands on work developing a real application with the potential to generate revenue and we received some great ideas about how to take ReForm XT to market," said Chris Kingham, vice president for marketing at Anyware. "It’s a win-win situation and we have discussed making the contest an annual event at TU."

Jon Evans and Daniel Hampton, both senior computer science majors from Bartlesville, Okla., took home Anyware’s grand prize with their university housing checkout inspection tool. Their idea streamlined the apartment checkout process on campus by reducing the paperwork and time needed to inspect and log apartment conditions as residents leave en masse at the end of the spring semester.

Evans and Hampton received a $2,000 cash prize, marketing and business support from Anyware, and support for other competitions, such as the Governor’s Cup.

Runners up were Christa Burks, a senior information systems major from Sperry, Okla., and Ahmed Al-Laslas, a junior computer science major from Saudi Arabia. They earned a $1,000 cash prize with their idea based on alleviating the paperwork burden of social workers at Youth Services of Tulsa.

The winners were announced Nov. 2 at a luncheon hosted by Anyware at Southern Hills Country Club.

Anyware Mobile Solutions, a division of Macrosolve Inc. is an experienced mobile business solutions provider and a leader in mobile data, video, product development and professional services. Founded by TU alumnus David Payne in 1996, Anyware was at the forefront of mobile computing and was one of Palm Inc.’s very first development partners.