CMA students win Miclot competition for off-grid communication innovation

 

A pair of Culver Military Academy first classmen won the $5,000 first prize in the Miclot Family Business Plan Competition for an off-grid communication device they created.

Simon Dienes of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Noah Tomkins of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, are founders of Mercury, which allows users to message, use real-time GPS navigation and access weather-tracking features when there is no Wi-Fi or cellular service. They described it as a device that pairs with a smartphone through a custom-built app to work as a decentralized mobile ad hoc mesh network.

Mercury was selected as the winner of the Miclot Business Plan Competition hosted by  The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur at Culver Academies by judges Tamre Pinner, a senior health care executive who brought deep expertise in evaluating growth strategy, operational feasibility and market readiness across health care and emerging ventures, and Jeb Banner, a founder, CEO, and creative entrepreneur whose work spans digital commerce, marketing SaaS and music-driven technology. Both have experience with startups and evaluating business competitions.

Four CMA second classmen, Carl Chen of Chongqing, China, Peter Liu of Shanghai, China, Lenny Zhou of Shenzhen, China, and Jack Huang of Guangzhou, China, won the $1,000 second prize for Onco Flow, a portable, low-cost device designed to enable early cancer screening through accessible, point‑of‑care technology, and Izzy Markle of Carmel, Indiana, and Aria Holtzman of Hinsdale, Illinois, won the $500 third prize for Vita Core, a sticker that develops color‑changing indicators that help consumers detect food freshness and chemical exposure to reduce waste.

The competition, which started in 2011, is endowed by Andy and Sharlene Miclot of Houston, Texas, who are the parents of Christopher ’08 and Caitlin ’10. J.D. Uebler, director of The Rubin School, said the Miclots started the competition to “inspire the entrepreneurial spirit” at Culver Academies, a top boarding school in the USA. 

The competition provides Culver students with realistic experience requiring teamwork, collaboration and field research under the guidance of a mentor entrepreneur. For more information about the Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur, click here.

 

 

Fifteen individuals or teams entered the contest by submitting executive summaries and one-minute recorded pitches. The Rubin School faculty advanced seven venture concepts to the final round where students had to develop their executive summaries into formal pitches.

Students were told to explain the market needs for their products, viability and feasibility, key financials and marketing strategies based on customer segmentation.

Each finalist was given 10 minutes to present and four minutes to answer questions from the judges.

The Mercury creators said they created the app out of necessity because they are outdoorsmen. Dienes described himself as an Eagle Scout who has spent hundreds of nights camping in remote environments. Tomkins said he spends his free time hiking, mountain biking and skiing.

“We built it because we needed it,” Tompkins said.

Instead of relying on traditional infrastructure, information “hops” between nearby devices until it reaches its destination.

“The best way to explain how this works is, imagine you’re in class, passing notes through other people to reach your friend,” Dienes said. “Mercury uses a very similar idea. Messages bounce off different devices until they get to the final destination.”

The technology allows users in remote areas, such as forests, mountains or rural communities, to communicate even when standard networks fail. Each additional Mercury device strengthens the system by expanding the network’s reach.

“Every device enhances the connection between devices,” Tompkins said. “It expands the web.”

The device is built into a cell phone case, eliminating the need for extra equipment often required by competing products, the creators said. Dienes and Tompkins used a working prototype to show how the product functions and cited a successful field test of 90 miles. The founders used an ex-marine operator and a scoutmaster to develop their value propositions compared to competitors.

Onco Flow, developed by four CMA students, is a portable cancer detection device designed to deliver faster, more affordable screening, potentially anywhere in the world.

The team members said their mission is to make early cancer detection accessible, affordable and available anywhere. The device centers on a small microfluidic chip that isolates circulating tumor cells from a blood sample. By identifying these cells early, the team hopes to improve survival rates, particularly for aggressive cancers where timing is critical.

 

 

According to the presenters, early detection dramatically increases survival outcomes. However, many existing diagnostic tools are expensive and limited to large hospitals in urban centers, leaving rural and underserved communities with few options.  The presenters used experts from the Jiahui International Hospital to run thousands of theoretical simulations with their prototype to determine feasibility.

 CGA students Markle and Holtzman said their sticker system is needed because 1.3 billion tons of food worth $160 billion is wasted every year worldwide and 60 percent of that is created by households. They showed through their prototypes that when it is placed on a fruit, the sticker turns green when it is not ready, bright yellow at peak ripeness and red when it should be discarded.

The other finalists were:

·       Nectaria Nedelea ’27 of Chicago, founder of ECOVERG is a modular curb system designed to replace the curb system around urban trees to allow them to live longer by improving air and water flow to the roots.

·       Shayan Behshid ’26 created Kitty Klear, that uses leaves from bushes in his back yard placed in tea-bag size nylon pouches to keep cats from climbing up on couches and scratching furniture.

·       Patricio Fox of Miami Beach, Florida, founder of Odital, which uses artificial intelligence to help businesses answer phone calls and answer emails in multiple languages to deliver better customer service.

·       Shannon (Xiangning) Li ’27 of Qingdao, China, founder of MORPH, which uses body heat to improve ink flow in whiteboard markers so that it uses 98.99 percent of the ink in a marker.

Uebler commented that The Rubin School faculty were pleased to see such a strong turnout by students and adults because the reactions from the audience created enthusiastic vibes in the room.

For more information about Culver Academies, click here.