Alums win invention competition

A trio of Fayette County Public Schools alums claimed the top prize at a prestigious invention competition. Representing Georgia Tech, McIntosh alums Jacqui and Caitlin van Zyl and Starr’s Mill grad Meg Weaver won the ACC InVenture Prize Finals with their pediatric epilepsy monitoring device.

Biomedical engineering student Caitlin van Zyl, her sister and mechanical engineering major Jacqui van Zyl, and Meg Weaver, a biomedical engineering major, took first place with their invention, NeuroChamp. The stylish, non-invasive headband would allow for children to be monitored without wearing bulky headgear.

NeuroChamp was awarded $15,000 for first place, and the trio plans to use the prize money to fund performance testing for FDA approval. The team is already working with physicians at Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to launch a pilot study of the medical device.

Teams from 14 universities competed in the annual undergraduate entrepreneurship competition, hosted this year at Florida State University.