News
OU Students Win Innovation Challenge For Mobile News Alarm App
By: WOUB Staff Writer
Posted on:
Six Ohio University students will share a $10,000 grand prize for winning an innovation competition Thursday after presenting their idea for a mobile alarm clock app that would get more young people to consume news.
The Scripps Innovation Challenge, a campus-wide contest sponsored by OU's Scripps College of Communication, encouarged students to innovate creative solutions to actual challenges from the media industry.
Broadcast journalism seniors Devin Bartolotta, Matt Digby, Glenn Janos, Leah Petrovich, Sarah Tranelli and management information systems senior Ryan Vibbert took home the grand prize after collaborating to design an app that would allow users to receive targeted news on their mobile devices at a desired time of day.
Their challenge was to “Craft a Strategy to Get More Young People to Consume News” and was submitted by Ogden Newspapers.
“It started out as a class project and as the idea developed, we realized it could be so much more,” said Tranelli in a press release. “We felt really confident about our idea and hoped we could come in here and get the judges to believe in it.”
The Challenge kicked off Jan. 17 and concluded when 10 finalist teams presented their ideas to a panel of industry judges. Each team had five minutes to present followed by a five-minute question and answer session with the judges.