Murphy Enterprise Center awards prizes

The Murphy Enterprise Center at UNT has awarded $50,000 in prize money to three student teams from Texas colleges and universities in its annual Shirley Murphy Business Plan Contest.

The first-place prize of $25,000 was awarded to Advanced Laser Composites from the University of Texas for its plans to manufacture tools and dies for the metal-casting industry. The second-place prize of $15,000 was awarded to Cooking in College, a joint team from UNT and Texas Christian University, which is developing an instructional cooking DVD for college students. And the third-place prize of $10,000 was awarded to Chipotle Business Group, a joint team from UT-Austin and UT–Arlington, for its work in water quality testing.

Teams of up to five members, including at least one full-time undergraduate student, from across the state submitted entries in the competition. Teams could also include individuals other than students — business associates, friends or family. Winners were announced Nov. 14 at a luncheon and award ceremony at the Hotel Inter-Continental in Addison The keynote speaker was Bill Grimes of Bill Grimes and Associates, and Sam Wyly was announced as the winner of the 2003 Murphy Award, presented to an outstanding entrepreneur for a lifetime of achievement in business. Wyly's career includes the founding of University Computing Co. and Green Mountain Energy Co.; development of the Bonanza Steakhouse chain, Earth Resources Co. and Sterling Software; and the building of the Michaels chain from a few Texas stores to more than 800 nationwide.

UNT's Murphy Enterprise Center was created with a donation from Ken and Shirley Murphy, UNT alumni and co-founders of The Mail Box Inc. Shirley Murphy, who died in 2001, was secretary of the company's board of directors and in charge of client services.

The first-place winners of the business plan contest, Advanced Laser Composites, are Scott Evans, Donnie Vanelli and Chris Schaefer. Advanced Laser Composites plans to manufacture tools and dies for the metal casting industry using silicon carbide molds, which provides advantages in quality, cost and cycle time over current tool steel products. The process is cheaper and less labor intensive than current methods.

The second-place winners, the Cooking in College team, got their idea from a puzzled college student who did not know how to cook spaghetti for dinner. David Spina, Cooking in College president, and his business partners, Taylor Kelly and UNT student Dustin Drew, plan to create a means to teach other college students how to save money by cooking simple recipes on their own. Their instructional DVD comes complete with costumed cooks, a live rock band for background music and a recipe book.

The third-place winner, Chipotle Business Group, consists of Joe Zirnhelt, Scott Evans, George Stevens, Sridhar Pushpavanam and Lawrence Samuel. In the area of water quality testing, CBG uses an electronic chemical sensor technology developed and patented at UT-Austin. The technology, which can be packaged as a disposable cartridge and processed with a handheld device, allows for immediate quantitative results in the field and reduces testing costs.

For more information about the center, visit www.murphycenter.unt.edu.

BY RUFUS COLEMAN rcoleman@unt.edu

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• Mean Green to revisit New Orleans Bowl
• Nearly 2,000 students to graduate Dec. 13
• UNT System names Footer to counsel post
• SECC drive tops $151,000
• Faculty concerns heard at senate meeting
• UNT deans Davis and Turner stepping down; search under way for replacements
• Dangerous winter weather brings possibility for closures
• Getty: You can have dessert, just don't eat too much of it

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