Vonage, U.Va. Announce Winners of Inaugural Student Competition at
OpenGrounds
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.,
Dec. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The
University of Virginia and Vonage, a leading provider
of communications services connecting individuals through
cloud-connected devices worldwide, today announced the winners of
the Future of Social Messaging Concept Competition, the
first-ever student competition at U.Va.'s OpenGrounds.
Students competed for first-, second- and third-place prizes of
$15,000, $7,000 and $3,000.
Marc Lefar, Vonage Chief Executive Officer and a 1985
graduate of U.Va.'s McIntire School of Commerce, revealed
the winners during an awards ceremony at the OpenGrounds Corner
Studio.
"We challenged U.Va. students to develop ideas that could define
the next evolution of social messaging, and they delivered," Lefar
said. "The breadth and depth of the ideas were excellent. We saw
some fantastic work that addressed real-world problems and provided
practical solutions."
Brent Baumgartner from
Clifton, Va., a computer science
major in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, won
the $15,000 first-place prize for
Attendr. Attendr is a localized social messaging virtual event
platform that facilitates information sharing between attendees at
the same event, even if they do not have previously established
social media relationships.
Damian Warshall from
Washington, D.C., a graduate
student pursuing his M.B.A. at the Darden School of
Business, won the $7,000
second-place prize for Listen-In. Listen-In is a location-centric
information and social media aggregation service that connects
users and businesses to comprehensive venue-relevant information
based on geographic proximity.
Representing the first winning concept in a two-way tie for the
third-place prize of $3,000 were
Niklas Philipsen, a systems
engineering major in the School of Engineering and Applied Science
from Richmond, Va., and
Benjamin Terner, a computer
science major in the School of Engineering and Applied Science,
also from Richmond. They developed
Planr, a social messaging platform for events, enabling users to
seamlessly discover and organize dinners, concerts, movies and
other activities with friends.
Murali Varadaraj from
Stony Brook, N.Y., also earned
third-place recognition and $3,000.
Varadaraj is an undergraduate pre-med and pre-commerce student in
the College of Arts & Sciences. He created SORT, a
social media platform that conveniently and intelligently
aggregates social media and extracts social views as they
develop.
"We are thrilled with the success of this first OpenGrounds
challenge," said Bill Sherman,
founding director of U.Va.'s OpenGrounds. "Both the quality of the
submissions we received and the potential that these ideas
represent for the University's engagement in the world will enhance
the culture at U.Va. This extraordinary partnership with Vonage has
opened doors for students and demonstrates the potential of these
new collaborations between the University and innovative
partners."
Thirty-eight student teams competed for the prize money. Their
ideas were reviewed by more than 50 professionals, including
technical experts, business development leaders and venture
capitalists.
Eleven students spanning seven finalist teams were selected to
present their concepts to a panel of judges in a closed session on
November 29. The panel included
Lefar; Chris Holden, Managing Partner of Court Square
Ventures; Thomas C. Skalak, Vice President for Research at
U.Va.; Baruch Sterman, a scientist and Vice President of Technology
Research at Vonage; and Von Wright, former Vice
President for AT&T Consumer & Mobility and CEO of 3 Points
Strategic Solutions, LLC.
Additional finalists included Katherine
Brock, Ari Greenberg,
Jessica James, Nate Phalen, Herb
Ryan and Chong Xu.
For information about the competition, visit the OpenGrounds
website or read about the competition
launch.
About the University of
Virginia
Founded in Charlottesville by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, the University of Virginia is a leading public
university that serves as a national model for excellence through
innovation and collaboration in its missions of teaching, research,
public service and health care.
About Vonage
Vonage (NYSE: VG) is a leading provider of communications services
connecting individuals through cloud-connected devices worldwide.
Our technology serves approximately 2.4 million subscribers. We
provide feature-rich, affordable communication solutions that offer
flexibility, portability and ease-of-use for both landline and
mobile phones. Our Vonage World plan offers unlimited calling to
more than 60 countries with popular features like call waiting,
call forwarding and visual voicemail – for one low monthly rate.
Our Vonage Mobile app is a free downloadable app for iPhone®
and Android™ that lets users talk and text worldwide for free with
anyone else who uses the app. Vonage's service is sold on the
web and through regional and national retailers including Wal-Mart,
Best Buy, Kmart and Sears, and is available to customers in the
U.S. (www.vonage.com), Canada (www.vonage.ca) and the
United Kingdom
(www.vonage.co.uk).
Vonage Holdings Corp. is headquartered in Holmdel, New Jersey. Vonage® is a registered
trademark of Vonage Marketing LLC, owned by Vonage America Inc.
To follow Vonage on Twitter, please visit
www.twitter.com/vonage. To become a fan on Facebook, go to
www.facebook.com/vonage. To subscribe on YouTube, visit
www.youtube.com/vonage.
SOURCE Vonage