Cade Prize for Inventivity Announces 2024 Winners

Gainesville, FL – Named after Dr. James Robert Cade, the lead inventor of Gatorade, the annual Cade Prize for Inventivity celebrates early-stage companies with great ideas and commercial potential. On Wednesday, September 25, fifteen finalist teams traveled from six states to gather at the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention for the final rounds of judging and the awards ceremony.

The grand prize winner, WriggleBrew, invented a process that uses bioreactors to decompose plastic waste and yield organic plant fertilizer. In addition to winning the grand prize, the Orlando-based company was named the Agriculture/Environmental category winner and was selected by local high school and college students as the winner of the Student Choice Award.

In total, WriggleBrew was awarded $60,000 in equity-free cash prizes and will receive hours of no-cost legal council, marketing and product development consulting. Following their win, Sam Baker, WriggleBrew's chief executive officer said “winning the grand prize was one of the most profoundly wonderful moments of my life. It's a beautiful feeling to have work you've striven and labored so hard on to be uplifted and recognized in such a way. The Cade is doing a great service to our culture by emphasizing the importance of Inventivity and by providing aspiring inventors, myself and team included, a forum to share our work and ideas.”

The winning teams of the remaining four categories each received $10,000 in cash as well as legal, marketing, and product development services. The category winners include:

• Energy: SynMatter (Orlando, FL) – Smart materials that create sustainable, higher performance and longer-lasting products.

• Healthcare: Rahm Sensor Development, Inc. (Orlando, FL) –  Zero-touch monitoring of heart rate, respiratory rate, and body temperature.

• Technology: AiWover (Boston, MA) – AI-guided, cloud-based baby monitoring system.

• Wildcard: VeriChem (Lakewood Ranch, FL) – Drug detection tool that preserves sample integrity and improves the accuracy of drug detection.

While the majority of this year's winners were from Florida, "applications came in from all across the country, spanning 19 states," said Cade Museum's chief executive officer, Bradley Gamble. In addition to the cash prizes, all Cade Prize winners are offered support from the Cade team and its sponsors. "Not only did five incredible companies win cash and valuable legal and product development services, they now have the notoriety of being a Cade Prize winner.  We hope that the exposure will help validate them in the eyes of investors, granting authorities, and potential clients," he added.

The fifteenth annual Cade Prize for Inventivity is sponsored by the Community Foundation of North Central Florida, Scott R. MacKenzie, The Florida High Tech Corridor, OneSixOne Ventures, Saliwanchik, Lloyd & Eisenschenk, 3D Musketeers, and NVision Strategies.

About
The Cade Prize for Inventivity — named after Dr. Robert Cade, lead inventor behind Gatorade — celebrates inventors and entrepreneurs, who, through an innovative invention, demonstrate a creative approach to addressing problems in their field of expertise. Learn more at cadeprize.org.

Media Contact
Julie DeCarmine, jdecarmine@cademuseum.org

Cade Prize for Inventivity Names Fifteen Finalists

August 15, 2024 — Judges for the 15th Annual Cade Prize for Inventivity named this year's fifteen finalists. Finalists will compete to win $10,000 in their respective categories — Agriculture + Environmental, Healthcare, Technology, Energy, and Wildcard — and are invited to compete in the final round of live judging at the awards ceremony on Wednesday, September 25, 2024 at the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida.

At the event, finalists will mingle with attendees, show off their innovations in an expo-style format, and meet one-on-one with the judges. After a round of live judging, the winners of the categories will be announced and the final five will present their pitches live on stage to compete for the Cade Prize for Inventivity™ Grand Prize and take home an additional $50,000 in cash along with hours of free product consulting and legal services. This year’s finalists include: 

Agriculture + Environmental

• Blue Chemistry by Cordelia Biosciences –  Biomanufacturing system for producing chemicals from coral reef microbes.

• Coral Loks by Ocean Rescue Alliance International – System for rapid attachment of coral to natural habitats or artificial structures for marine restoration. 

• WriggleBrew – Organic fertilizer and soil amendments designed to fight pests while simultaneously feeding plants. 

Energy

• Energy Transfer System by The Standard Hydrogen Corporation – A renewable energy driven system that generates, stores and utilizes hydrogen to provide electrical services including EV charging and resiliency, as well as fuel and energy for non-combustion vehicles using the same infrastructure. 

• Simultaneous Battery + Capacitor Design Tool by Moye Consultants – A simultaneous battery and capacitor design tool. 

• Smart Particles by SynMatter – Smart materials that create sustainable, higher performance and longer-lasting products.

Healthcare

• iSperm by CellARTs – Personalized solutions for male reproductive problems.

• PainPredict by SRC Biosciences – Early Pain Detection (EPD) tool that combines continuous neonate monitoring with deep learning to predict the onset/offset of severe neonatal pain.

• RahmSD Guardian by Rahm Sensor Development, Inc. –  Zero-touch monitoring of heart rate, respiratory rate, and body temperature.

Technology

• AiWover by Sarah Ostadabbas & Northeastern University – AI-guided, cloud-based baby monitoring system.

• Disability Claim Builder by Unbound Disability Claims – A platform to streamline the Social Security Disability (SSD) application process.

• MRGN – AI-powered business intelligence platform that  automates business decision-making by analyzing market factors and corporate data in real time.

Wildcard

• MagLev by VeriChem – Drug detection tool that preserves sample integrity and improves the accuracy of drug detection.

• Optima Planner by OptimaMinds – Agenda planner application embedded with NFC technology that captures handwritten data to sync with digital calendars.

• Gravitational Load Transposition Effect (GLTE) by Illinois Institute of Technology & Dusault Engineering —  A novel load balancing system for building structures.

As a national competition, the Cade Prize accepted applications from inventors and entrepreneurs from a total of 19 states and with affiliations ranging from research universities to the private sector and technology transfer organizations.

Final judging will take place at the awards ceremony on Wednesday, September 25, 2024 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida. Tickets are on sale at cadeprize.org.

This year’s prize is sponsored by Scott R. MacKenzie, The Community Foundation of North Central Florida, The Florida High Tech Corridor, OneSixOne Ventures, Saliwanchik, Lloyd & Eisenschenk, 3D Musketeers, NVision Strategies and Hyatt Place Downtown.

About
The Cade Prize for Inventivity — named after Dr. Robert Cade, lead inventor behind Gatorade — celebrates inventors and entrepreneurs, who, through an innovative invention, demonstrate a creative approach to addressing problems in their field of expertise. Learn more at cadeprize.org.

Media Contact
Julie DeCarmine, jdecarmine@cademuseum.org  

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