Dr. Andy Drozd & Bob Bojanek to Judge at Upcoming New York Business Plan Competition

Dr. Andy Drozd, President of ANDRO Computational Solutions, LLC, and Corporate Advisory Board Member, Bob Bojanek, have been invited to judge at the upcoming New York Business PLan Competition (NYBPC).

The New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC) project is designed for students to encourage the development of greater entrepreneurial capacity in New York State. SUNY Poly is the regional host for the Mohawk Valley. The competition is open to all students from all universities in our MV region, all disciplines, and all levels–both undergraduate and graduate. Students are encouraged to form diverse teams and collectively have fun developing their ideas. The competition gives students the opportunity to bring concepts for new useful and inventive technologies, processes, services, and organizations to life. Students do not need a background in business to join forces with others and enter the competition. Cross-disciplinary teams are encouraged.

During the day of the competition (Friday, April 5, 2024), student teams pitch their venture concepts in thematic tracks to judges who then give them feedback and rubric-based evaluations. The tracks are as follows: Food & Agtech; Health & Wellbeing; Learn, Work & Live; Safety, Power & Mobility; Products & Hardware; and Software & Services. Past student participants have remarked that the competition benefited them in several ways including becoming more capable through experiential learning, being nudged to finally develop their dream ideas for helping others, getting valuable feedback from expert judges, being recognized and awarded with cash prizes, and having the chance to get funding for their exciting new ventures.

As an update for NYBPC MV, graduate students from the SUNY Upstate Innovation & Entrepreneurship group have expressed interest in partnering with other students who have complementary skills for our upcoming competition. Here is a description of the SUNY Upstate students and their interest areas:

The SUNY Upstate Innovation & Entrepreneurship student organization is a space for medical students and other students entering health professions to explore the intersection of business and medicine. Our goal is to offer local biomedical start-ups our expertise in science and medicine to help advance these businesses in any way our role as consultants within this sphere can contribute. While our student organization may have teams enter the competition on their own, we also have students who may be interested in serving as consultants to other teams, should their project ideas relate to science, medicine, health, and wellness. 

For more information, visit: New York Business Plan Competition (nybpc.org)