Students, faculty and community members gathered at Devlin Hall on Friday afternoon to attend the 2015 Shocker New Venture Competition, a competition to encourage and facilitate Kansas college students to create and manage a business venture.

Comprised of 77 teams that submitted designs and business plans, over 120 students from across the state entered the competition by Feb. 27.

Friday, however, the final six teams that have been deemed to be the most viable met to present their ideas in competition for $30,000 in prize money, awarded to help offset startup costs for their business ventures.

“We are in our ninth year of hosting it and we are offering over $30,000 in seed capital this year,” said Tia Bodine, coordinator of operations and student services for the Center of Entrepreneurship.

Although the startup marketplace can be crowded, students presented products that represented industries including healthcare, aviation and surveillance photography.

The contest was open to students from all backgrounds, allowing for the competition to be a learning opportunity as well. Although some students may not have a background in business, the competition required them to create business models, marketing strategies and product development.

“I think they have all grown a lot in the past two weeks from getting feedback, making projections and making a sound business plan,” Bodine said. “The entire thing is just a learning process.”

Students from the University of Kansas, Pittsburg State, Baker University and Wichita State took part in the competition, with GoodFlight LLC, a vision of WSU doctoral student Georg Schirmer, taking the top $10,000 prize. Prizes were also awarded for other projects in the final award ceremony, with $5,000 going to MediPaq, $2,000 going to Mobile HealthLink and $750 going to Rabbit Method Technologies. Other awards were also given.

Offering a smartphone application designed to effectively and economically track flight patterns and characteristics, Schirmer said he hopes to be able to use the prize money to take his company to the next level.

“The fact that I was a one-man operation took a lot of effort to get to this point,” Schirmer said. “I don’t know how it all came together, but it did and it feels great.”

Even for those who did not take home the top prize, the competition was a career opportunity that will not be forgotten.

“It is definitely an honor [to take part] and there were a lot of hurdles, but it is great and humbling to go through, especially as freshmen and sophomores,” said Hassan Farhoud, CEO of MediPaq. “The idea was something that was remotely there before, but this competition was an opportunity to start the idea and make it a reality.”