Alabama Launchpad Competition Startups have Industrial Design Connections

One of the six teams chosen to advance next month to the Alabama Launchpad Competition Finale has direct ties to the CADC’s Industrial Design Program in the School of Industrial + Graphic Design. Huemei Yuan, an Industrial Design graduate student, is the industrial designer on a team with students from the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering who have developed Tennibot, “a robotic tennis ball collector that allows the player to focus on having fun and hitting balls, not collecting them.” They will compete against five other teams for their share of up to $250,000 on August 27 in Birmingham.

Another team with industrial design ties had made into the second round of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama’s annual Alabama Launchpad competition. Clint Blassingame, a 1992 graduate of Industrial Design, was part of the Acuralabs team. Acuralabs of Huntsville, Alabama, “uses intuitive design, beautiful material and smart technology to invent news solutions and reinvent age-old products and services in the physician, patient, and healthcare provider.”

These startups were picked out of 22 applicants in the first round of the Alabama Launchpad Competition, which is in its ninth year. For more about Alabama Launchpad, click here.