An idea born from a missed lunch won an Arkansas State University team more than $30,000 Wednesday in the 15th Donald W. Reynolds Governor's Cup college business plan competition.
One Sunday after church, Joshua Baker and his wife invited her father, a farmer, to go out to lunch. He couldn't accept because he had to check his wells.
"It was at the height of the irrigation season," said Baker, chief executive officer of Agricultural Innovations. "I thought to myself, 'How can I help him?'"
Baker began to study the market.
Automation is common for farm wells, Baker said. A farmer can remotely turn his well on and off and determine the progress of his irrigation.
"But nobody has taken that data from the field and put it into something where the farmer can see it in real time and be able to manage his irrigation," Baker said.
Agricultural Innovations developed a sensor-driven irrigation system. The system uses solar-powered, wireless field sensors to monitor soil temperature and soil moisture. The data are collected and uploaded to a website the farmer accesses to aid in irrigation decisions.
Baker came up with the idea and Kenneth Rains, the company's chief technical officer, built the system.
Agricultural Innovations was awarded $25,000 for winning the graduate division of the business plan competition Wednesday. In addition, the team won another $8,000 for two other awards.
Agricultural Innovations hopes to develop the idea into business, Baker said.
The company expects to have a fully functioning prototype developed by June, Baker said. The company's initial target market is Arkansas and then neighboring states, Baker said.
A team from Harding University, TIRE -- an acronym for Tire Inflation and Regulatory Equipment -- won the undergraduate category and $25,000.
TIRE is a tire-inflation system for mountain bikes. The system allows the rider to change the pressure in the tires as he rides the bike, as quickly as the terrain changes, said Andrew Brackins, a TIRE executive.
A compressor is mounted in the middle of the bicycle frame, Brackins said.
"When the rider wishes to increase or decrease his air pressure, he can select it on his handlebars," Brackins said. "The compressor is driven by the rear wheel. When [the compressor] turns on, it pumps your tire up much like a hand pump."
There were 47 teams from 12 Arkansas colleges and universities that submitted business plans and competed to win part of the $152,000 in awards.
In the undergraduate competition, second place and $15,000 went to Charlie's Choices of John Brown University, which offers a sleep timer that shows children how long to stay in bed. Opt-In from John Brown, which provides work opportunities for women who raise their children from home, finished in third place and received $10,000.
In the graduate category, second place and $15,000 went to Kordate Solutions from the University of Arkansas, which focuses on developing an Alzheimer's drug, and Baby Booster of the University of Arkansas, which has developed a prenatal protein supplement, finished third and won $10,000.
The winners of the innovation awards, worth $5,000 each, were Conner Innovation of the University of Arkansas, which has developed a device to clear debris from low-water bridges, in the undergraduate category and Agricultural Innovations in the graduate category.
The winner of the agricultural award and $5,000 was Baby Booster. Agricultural Innovations was second and won $3,000.
The winners of the 90-second presentation competition, where students summarized their business plans, were TIRE in the undergraduate category and SAF-Tech of Arkansas State University, which has developed the idea for a device that prevents teen drivers from texting, in the graduate category. Each received $2,000.
The top two winners in the graduate and undergraduate competition will compete in the Donald W. Reynolds Tri-State Competition in Las Vegas next month. Also competing in Las Vegas will be teams from Nevada and Oklahoma.
Business on 04/23/2015