Engineering students place third at UH Business Plan Competition

UH Engineering students Tom Knapp-Ramos and Jonathan Uejbe took third place at the 2018 UH Business Plan Competition (BPC) for their business plan centered around a product they developed called “Swipewrap.”  Swipewrap is a software service that enhances the digital gifting user experience with personalized, 3D unwrappable gift boxes, which users can unwrap with their fingers on their smartphone.  The prize package for third place includes the $2,500 HiBEAM Bill Richardson Pioneer Prize and $3,000 value in legal and marketing services.

Organized by the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship (PACE) at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Shidler College of Business, the annual BPC is an intense, semester-long, experiential program that provides hands-on education, mentorship and resources to students and faculty (from any of the 10 UH campuses) who seek to learn what it takes to be an entrepreneur and start a business venture. The competition encourages collaboration across disciplines, and engages a wide array of competitors from various fields including Engineering, Computer Science, Medicine, Art, Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, Tropical Agriculture and Business.

The HEI Charitable Foundation and the Hawaiian Electric Companies were the title sponsors. Other sponsors include Convergent Law Group, HiBEAM, Pineapple Tweed and the University of Hawaii Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation.