Butterworth Product Development Competition

AY 2012-13 SCHEDULE:


Phase 1 – Concept Paper
Feb. 4 Concept Paper Due
Feb. 22 - March 1
 Judges review period and deadline
March 4
 Comments back to students and mentors
Phase 2 – Product Specification and Oral Presentation
April 1
 Product Specification (One Page Summary Due)
April 3

Product Specification (Student Oral Presentation and Judge’s Feedback)
Time: 10:00 – 2:00 PM
Location: Bren Hall, Room 6011 (10 minute time slots)
Oral Presentation (includes 3-5 slides and one team member presenter/5 mins)
Judge critique and feedback (5 mins)
April 19 Workshop: “How to Incorporate a Business Case into your Proposed Product”
Date: April 18, 3013
Presenter: Hadar Ziv
Time: 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Location: Bren Hall 5011
Phase 3 – Final Product and Business Case
May 8 Final Product & Business Case Due
May 14
 Workshop: “How to Demo your Product”
Presenter: Ash Kumra
Time: 6:00 – 7:30 PM,
Location: Bren Hall 5011
(pizza will be served)
May 10-17 Judges review period and deadline
Phase 4 – Demo and Awards
May 17
 Student Demos and Judging
Time: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM (slots),
Location: Harut Barsamian Colloquia Room, Engineering Hall
May 22
 Final Awards at Dean’s Leadership Council Meeting

Goal of the Butterworth Competition

The goal of the Butterworth Product Development Competition is to create a culture within the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) at UC Irvine that encourages an entrepreneurial spirit among students and encourages the development of new, technically innovative products by graduate and undergraduate students. For those ICS students who are interested in creating products and starting businesses, this will provide an opportunity to meet other students on campus with these same interests, and to interact with faculty and mentors who can advise them.

To participate or for more information, please contact Kristin Huerth at khuerth@ics.uci.edu.

 

Background

Paul Butterworth is co-founder and chief technical officer of AmberPoint, Inc. (recently sold to Oracle Corp.), a leading provider of management software for service-oriented architectures.  Before AmberPoint, Paul was a founder of Forte Software where he served as the chief architect and senior vice president of engineering and customer services.  He later became chief technology officer for Forte Tools at Sun Microsystems. Before founding Forte, he served as chief architect and director of product engineering at Ingres Corporation. A resident of Alamo, Calif., Butterworth was named in 2002 one of Red Herring’s “Top Innovators,” a distinction which honors innovative executives whose pioneering spirit lead to breakthrough contributions for their companies and the information industry. He attended UC Irvine where he received his B.S. in ICS in 1974 and his M.S. in 1981.

 

Program Rules and Guidelines

 

Product Development. The Butterworth Competition is designed to encourage the creation of innovative products based on information and computing technologies. Each team will submit a concept paper and business product plan (described below) during the course of the competition.   Products are evaluated on their technological merits and potential to impact the marketplace. Students are encouraged to submit new products that involve the development of software and systems. Products that entail integration of subsystems are acceptable as long as there is a substantial innovative component.

 

Participants. The competition is open to all UCI students. Teams must be composed of at least two students, of which at least one must be an ICS student. For example, a team member from the Merage School of Business could contribute business planning knowledge that would help the team or students from schools of science or engineering could contribute knowledge of a particular application or technology. Students can be graduate or undergraduate, but must be registered at UC Irvine for the duration of the academic year of the competition. We encourage teams to have at least one student who has taken (or is concurrently enrolled in the Entrepreneurship in the Information Age course (COMPSCI 190/COMPSCI 295).  This course will help students think in terms of products and evaluating their product ideas from a commercial perspective.  The competition welcomes groups of students engaged in ICS project courses (in either Computer Science or Informatics). 

 

Mentors. At the start of the competition, each team is paired with at least one mentor if they have not already selected one. Mentors are composed of local industry engineers and executives, ICS faculty, and experienced entrepreneurs. Mentors are chosen based on the mentor’s expertise and the team’s product idea.

 

Timeline. The competition is officially kicked off during winter quarter and runs through the end of spring quarter. There is a required final demonstration at the close of the competition.

 

Prizes.  Final awards will be presented during the Butterworth Competition showcase at the end of the academic year. There will be cash awards for the top three teams.

 

Guidelines

To participate in the competition, teams must fill out the Web-based intent-to-enter form indicating participation interest (available after the official kickoff during winter quarter). Upon completion of this form, teams will be assigned industry/faculty mentors according to the criteria delineated in the registration form.

 

Obtaining Additional Team Members: Potential participants are encouraged to meet students with similar interests who may be willing to collaborate and form a team at one of the info sessions offered prior to the intent-to-enter deadline. Students from across campus are encouraged to attend even if they do not have a concept developed.

 

Requirements: Teams will be required to present a concept paper, product specification, and a final product and business plan (deadlines noted above).  The business product portion should include evidence that a market exists for the product with preliminary plans for a product price and market size.  Additional details regarding the required documents will be provided at the kickoff event.  All documents should be single spaced with a font size between 10 and 12 points.

 

Demonstrations: Demonstrations of the product are required for the final phase of the competition.  Teams will have a chance to present their projects and demos in front of a panel of judges.

 

Team Integrity: Once the concept paper has been submitted, 50% of the team must remain intact for the rest of the competition. 100% of the team must remain intact after submitting the product specification.

 

No outside funding: Teams must present an original idea and be in a "pre-incubator" form. They must not be backed by incubators, existing companies, venture capitalists or other investors. Teams or team members that have received any form of venture capital financing for their competition entry plan or a likeness thereof may not participate in the competition. Any team receiving venture capital funding while participating in the competition will be disqualified.

 

Judging Guidelines:  The judges are professionals who come from various backgrounds. Judges are experts in the process of starting a business or in the technologies the students are developing. The judges consider many different criteria when evaluating concept papers, business product plans, and products. Some of the elements that are considered are as follows:

 

- Does the technological/design innovation provide a sustainable, competitive advantage?

- Does a competitive advantage exist over other products in this application?

- Does the functionality satisfy the application?

- Is the product description clear and detailed?

- Is there a market need for this product?

- Are the benefits to the user clear and sufficient to result in purchase?

- Are the requirements thorough, realistic and accurate?

- Is there a clear product architecture consistent with the current and evolving trends?

 

 

 

Phase 1 – Concept Paper
Feb. 2nd – Concept Paper Due
Feb. 7th – Workshop: Working with Your Mentor/How to Define a Product
                   Presenters:  Kevin Kinsey & David Cheng
                   Details:  6-7:00 PM Bren Hall, 6011
Feb. 15th – Comments back to students and mentors

Phase 2 – Product Specification
March 15th – Product Specification Due
March 20th – Workshop: How to Write a Business Plan
                        Presenter:  Judith Olson
                        Details:  12-1:00 PM Bren Hall, 6011
March 28th – Comments back to students and mentors

Phase 3 – Final Product & Business Plan
May 3rd  – Final Product & Business Plan Due
May 10th – Workshop: How to Pitch your Product
                    Presenter: Ash Kumra
                    Details:  6-7:00 PM Bren Hall, 6011
May 18th – Student Demos and Judging w/”Celebrity” Judges
                    Details:  8 AM – 5 PM timed presentation slots, CalIT2
May 22nd – Final Awards – Octane Happy Hour Event (w/celeb judges present)
                     Details:  TBD