HexNest lands second place at 2019 Cozad

4/11/2019

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HexNest wins second place at 2019 Cozad Competition.
HexNest wins second place at 2019 Cozad Competition.
MechSE sophomore Mark Van den Avont’s company, HexNest, captured second place out of 56 finalist teams at the 2019 Cozad Competition held April 10 at the I-Hotel.

The Cozad New Venture Challenge encourages students to innovate and create new businesses. Teams that make it to the finals round of competition have the opportunity to meet with venture capitalists, early-stage investors, and successful entrepreneurs who serve as judges. 

HexNest is developing a sports/gymnastics mat that will cost less than those currently on the market, making the equipment more accessible. It will also have a safer design. 

"We’re proud to announce that our version 3.0 prototype we finished that about a week ago," Van den Avont said. "So we now have a working mat that looks, feels, acts just like a gymnastics mat. We just have some sort of polishing do to get the safety right and some durability and different things like that. And then we’ll be hopefully getting these mats in gyms and getting customers jumping on them and get them here pretty shortly. We’re really proud of where we’ve come, lot of good people associated with it now and look out for us in the future.”

Other Cozad teams with at least one MechSE student were Ahead Materials, Inc. (Michael Doty); Daniat (Diab Abueidda and Sheikh Farhan); EVio (Richard and Robert Mauge); Filify 3D (Wes Kramer); and Verge Exotic Pet Products (Nicolas Bahr). See the accompanying photos and captions to learn about these exciting startups.

Daniat: “We’re an agricultural company focused in the date palm industry. Our goal and our vision is to automate the whole harvesting process for date palm farming. So we’re starting with tackling the sorting issue and we want to provide that comeback person and sorting machine that will categorize dates based on moisture contents, color outside, and some other characteristics within the dates.”
Daniat: “We’re an agricultural company focused in the date palm industry. Our goal and our vision is to automate the whole harvesting process for date palm farming. So we’re starting with tackling the sorting issue and we want to provide that comeback person and sorting machine that will categorize dates based on moisture contents, color outside, and some other characteristics within the dates.”
EVio: “What is it like owning a car in 2019? It could be better, it’s not customized right? It’s not exactly what you want. We’re trying to alleviate that. So the whole idea is we’re producing a modular (battery) electric vehicle with chassis will be standard with several different models, like a sport car chassis, sedan, SUV chassis, but the whole idea is we produce any number of body panels to match your style. Match what you truly want. So if you get tired of your front hood for example, just swap it out later, purchase a new one from us. You get tired of the door, swap it out, purchase a new one. So the whole idea is you don’t settle for the car. You don’t settle for a cookie cutter, gas guzzling, environmentally unfriendly car. You end up settling for what you truly want. Because we have the options and we have the availability to make whatever you want.”
EVio: “What is it like owning a car in 2019? It could be better, it’s not customized right? It’s not exactly what you want. We’re trying to alleviate that. So the whole idea is we’re producing a modular (battery) electric vehicle with chassis will be standard with several different models, like a sport car chassis, sedan, SUV chassis, but the whole idea is we produce any number of body panels to match your style. Match what you truly want. So if you get tired of your front hood for example, just swap it out later, purchase a new one from us. You get tired of the door, swap it out, purchase a new one. So the whole idea is you don’t settle for the car. You don’t settle for a cookie cutter, gas guzzling, environmentally unfriendly car. You end up settling for what you truly want. Because we have the options and we have the availability to make whatever you want.”
Filify 3D: “So what Filify 3D does is address the issue of classic waste in 3D printing. Kind of using the data we’ve collected we estimate that over the course of the next five years over 15,000 metric tons of waste will be created because of 3D printing,  just using filament 3D printing. So that’s probably the weight of two Eiffel towers. What we do is we collect waste from printing facilities on campus and we recycle it back into 3D printer filament which is used in the 3D printers as the feedstock.”
Filify 3D: “So what Filify 3D does is address the issue of classic waste in 3D printing. Kind of using the data we’ve collected we estimate that over the course of the next five years over 15,000 metric tons of waste will be created because of 3D printing, just using filament 3D printing. So that’s probably the weight of two Eiffel towers. What we do is we collect waste from printing facilities on campus and we recycle it back into 3D printer filament which is used in the 3D printers as the feedstock.”
Verge Exotic Pet Products: “I was in high school and I had a lot of reptiles and I could never find someone to come take care of them when I was out of town and on vacation. And one thing interesting about reptiles is their feeding instinct is driven by movement so the food has to be alive in order for them to see it and then want to eat it. And there was no live feeding device on the market. The lighting, the heating, the misting can all easily be set on timers but this solution did not exist. So, because I had this own problem, I saw a lot of other people had the same problem, I decided to start creating this device. So I’ve been working on it for the past year and a half. And where I’m at is I produce 30 devices which I’ve been doing testing on and talking to consumers, and I’m looking to produce my first 1,000 devices in the early summer and start selling them online in later summer.”
Verge Exotic Pet Products: “I was in high school and I had a lot of reptiles and I could never find someone to come take care of them when I was out of town and on vacation. And one thing interesting about reptiles is their feeding instinct is driven by movement so the food has to be alive in order for them to see it and then want to eat it. And there was no live feeding device on the market. The lighting, the heating, the misting can all easily be set on timers but this solution did not exist. So, because I had this own problem, I saw a lot of other people had the same problem, I decided to start creating this device. So I’ve been working on it for the past year and a half. And where I’m at is I produce 30 devices which I’ve been doing testing on and talking to consumers, and I’m looking to produce my first 1,000 devices in the early summer and start selling them online in later summer.”

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This story was published April 11, 2019.