Wauwatosa team wins annual ‘Wisconsin YES!’ youth biz plan contest with sign language app

MADISON, Wis. – Emily Scott and William Moertl, an 8th grade duo at Whitman Middle School in Wauwatosa, are the first-place winners in Wisconsin YES!, a statewide youth business plan contest for students in middle and high school.

Scott and Moertl’s company, Signfluent, will produce a software app that can be used to learn and translate Sign Language. Signfluent has a database of signs, grammatical rules and terminology, and uses a camera-based recognition system to translate to non-sign users.

Scott and Moertl will present their product June 2 at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference, to be held at the Italian Community Center in Milwaukee.

“Up to 500,000 Americans and 125,000 people in Britain use sign language every day, so Signfluent stands to be important innovation for that market,” said Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, which produces the contest. “The team hopes to work with other languages if they are successful in Signfluent’s early stages.”

Students submitted their ideas in a 250-word online summary to compete in Phase 1 of the contest. Professionals from across the state served as judges, provided feedback and scored the ideas. Twelve entries moved on to Phase 2, which required 1,000-word executive summaries covering company overview; product or service description; customer definition; market description, size and sales strategy; competition; team; financials; and capital needs.

Second place was awarded to a team of Wyatt Barker, Brayden Deering and Noah Schipper from Kimberly High School for their entry, Teplos Snowboard/Ski Helmets. Teplos allows customers to customize their helmet with technology and accessories, such as Bluetooth, GPS tracking and temperature control.

Cecilia Maricle, Wyatt Linder, Teemu Keinanen, Georgia Maricle, Mikko Keinanen, Nevaeh Prodzinski of Marsupial Undershorts was awarded third place for their entry, light-weight, fitted undershorts with pockets for holding a phone, money, keys and more.

The Wisconsin YES! contest is produced by the Wisconsin Technology Council. Major support is provided by WEA Trust and, UW-Madison Office of Business Engagement.

Contest partners have included the Department of Financial Institutions, Department of Public Instruction, the Association of Wisconsin School Administrators, Make a Difference Wisconsin, Project Lead the Way Wisconsin, STEM Forward, Wisconsin Association of School Boards, Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers and Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials. 

Modeled after the successful Governor’s Business Plan Contest, Wisconsin YES! is designed to teach students how innovation in science and technology fields can be developed into plausible business plans.  It is an opportunity for students to explore the connections between science, technology and entrepreneurship, and for educators and judges to cultivate an interest in these arenas. Visit https://wisconsinyes.com/ to learn more.

In alphabetical order by submission name, finalists in the tenth annual contest were:

Submission Name	Name	Community/Grade
Ab ´N Oli	Sky Sirinek, Abby Seizer	Wauwatosa/9th grade and under
AnywhereTour	Julius Zakaria	Oak Creek/11th grade
Becker Beds	Jason Adix	Mequon/11th grade
EZ Garden	Lily Wiemer	Wauwatosa/9th grade and under
Hung Dung	Derius Lucas	Wauwatosa/9th grade and under
Marsupial Undershorts	Cecilia Maricle, Wyatt Linder, Teemu Keinanen, Georgia Maricle, Mikko Keinanen, Nevaeh Prodzinski	Holmen/9th grade and under
Metopia	Wyatt Johnson	Burnett/12th grade
Relu	Nicholas Hu	Mequon/11th grade
Ripe	Wyatt Ehrhardt	Verona/9th grade and under
Schlick	Dalton Derringer, Sean Krueger	Crivitz/9th grade and under
Signfluent	Emily Scott	Wauwatosa/9th grade and under
Step-Up	Frankie Maynard	Brodhead/10th grade
Teplos Snowboard/Ski	Wyatt Barker	Kimberly/12th grade
TouchDrive	Einthiri Mudili	Franklin/11th grade
We Invest	Max Ranft	Wauwatosa/9th grade and under
Zoom Book	Isabel Taormina	Wauwatosa/9th grade and under

 

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.