PionEar earns third place in the 4th annual AHA! Allegany County Startup Collegiate Competition

PionEar earned third place in the 4th annual AHA! Allegany County Startup Collegiate Competition. A trio of sport management students, Nick Valentino (Tonawanda, NY), David Harrell (New York, NY), and Evan French (Rochester, NY) won a $1,000 prize.

PionEar is a two-way communication system that easily attaches to a football player’s helmet. With this system a coach can directly talk back and forth with players during practices. The students were mentored by Boh Ruffin, PhD, Senior Research Manager, Laser Processing, Corning Incorporated and Tony Aquilina, Professor of Sports Management at Alfred State College.  

Campus Forum, a quartet of ASC architecture students, won a $250 prize for winning the Viewer’s Choice Award. Jackson Eigg (Fairport, NY), Eli Dunn (New Lebanon, NY), James Macdonald (Saratoga Springs, NY), and Jackson Volosik (Southold, NY) developed Campus Forum which is an online platform that connects students to jobs and services. It would create a centralized market for the community to find student labor and gives students and local businesses a way to find employees.

The Alfred University team of Caleb Lesswing and Montana Weidman and their company Vitrum Everlasting won the 2024 AHA! Allegany County Startup Collegiate Competition. The company creates unbreakable glassware with a new technology (patent pending). This glass will benefit both home consumers as well as business owners both small and large. They will focus on ion-strengthened stemmed wine glasses, spirit glasses, and pint glasses as they start growing their business. These are dishwasher safe and have the option to be antibacterial and germicidal as well. 

The Alfred University duo of Emily Agnello and Sienna Cefalu and their company Insights into Answers finished in 2nd place with a $2,500 prize.

Remainder of the teams:
Clearly Solar (Alfred University) – Natalee Collins, Briana Dorr, and Cassidy Primrose 
Campus Smart Parking (Alfred University) – Andrii Maltsev, Maksym Smirnov, and Ryan Way
Made to Fit (Alfred State College) – Journey Beacham and Lesley Chavez 
The Mental Playbook (Alfred University) – Kenneth Allison & Gabe Eldaye 

Brooke Harris, Chairman of the Allegany County NY Board of Legislators, Casey Joyce, Former President of Otis Minnesota and energy and construction professional, and Albert Rivera, Business Development Officer, Pathstone Enterprise Center served as judges. The trio evaluated pitches made by eight teams.

Ashleigh Madison, the Executive Director of IncubatorWorks stated “This year was the best year yet, with great ideations, innovations, and student led pitches that were delivered with poise and creativity. We are so fortunate to have such great student talent at Alfred University and Alfred State College, and it makes me hopeful for our future with these leaders of tomorrow.”

This competition is made possible through grant funding, partnerships, and sponsors from: Alfred University, Alfred State College, Allegany County, the ACCORD Corp., the Western New York Incubator Network, Western NY Wilds, The Center for Advanced Ceramic Technology (CACT) at Alfred University, Alfred University School of Business, Sealing Devices Inc., Maple City Savings Bank, and Ljungström / Arvos Group. 

About IncubatorWorks: IncubatorWorks provides programming and services to Ceramics and Glass Science startups as well as Main Street Businesses. IW plays a vital part in fostering growth of entrepreneurial enterprises and small businesses in the surrounding areas with a focus on Allegany County, Chemung County, Steuben County, and Schuyler County. Along with the collegiate competitions such as AHA in Allegany County, IncubatorWorks is also presenting the 607 Soaring Collegiate Competition with Elmira College and Corning Community College on April 27. IncubatorWorks also offers a 12-week Small Business Accelerator Program, Business Plan Program, Summer Youth Program, and a Prototyping Maker Space Labe in our Elmira location. These programs are made possible with a collaboration of New York State grants, Chemung County grants, as well as a federal grant known as New Energy New York in collaboration with SUNY Binghamton and other partners.