PANTHERS INVENT

Cultivating Student Innovation And Entrepreneurship

The spirit of innovation is alive and thriving among Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) students.

Vice President Rajan became an entrepreneur while in graduate school and has established multiple successful tech companies during his career.

Since innovation and entrepreneurship are his passion, the vice president aimed to bring the rich experiences that entrepreneurship offers to PVAMU students.

The ICEED team held its inaugural Panthers Invent in 2021 successfully teaming up with Texas A&M University (TAMU) and Sandia National Laboratories. This innovation competition was a three-day challenge, based on a proven format used at universities nationwide, where interested students were given real-life design needs statements and then competed for the best product/solution, including potential commercialization of that solution via a startup company. Sandia sponsored the contest.

The Division of Research & Innovation hosted the Fall 2022 Panthers Invent student competition on September 16-18, 2022, bringing students together from all disciplines and classifications. The program enrollment considerably grew from last year to twentyfive graduate and undergraduate students who formed five teams to compete for the best solution to real-world need statements. This competition isn’t just about competing; it is also an opportunity to make new connections with peers and gain valuable experience to be used in various industries.

Throughout the competition weekend, students enjoyed being challenged and putting their creativity to the test. With the competition being held in the School of Architecture Fabrication Design Center, these student teams had the ability to use state of the art equipment and tools to design models of their solutions. The teams successfully built prototypes to use in their final presentations. The live demonstrations during the final presentations were exciting to see!

This Panthers Invent was sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). Some of SNL’s most skilled engineers developed the need statements presented to the students and worked with the student teams to solve the given problems. At the conclusion of the competition, SNL awarded the top three teams with cash prizes.