Engineers rule Owl Open

Two teams of engineering students took home big checks for victories in the 2016 Owl Open, Rice’s student startup competition, Feb. 20. The Skylark Wireless team, above, earned $2,500 and automatic entry into this year’s Rice Business Plan Competition for winning the graduate student division. From left: Rice Alliance Managing Director Brad Burke, electrical engineering graduate students Ryan Guerra and Clayton Shepard and Rice Center for Engineering Leadership Executive Director Kaz Karwowski. The team is developing high-performance wireless technology that uses television white-space bandwidth to deliver broadband Internet service to underserved markets.

Steward Technology, below, won the undergraduate division. From left, judge Rachel Deskin of Energy XXI, computer science and mathematics student Philip Taffet, computer science student Jake Nyquist and Karwowski. The team is developing communications software and hardware for the automotive industry.