Updated: July 22/18 | By: Chris Herbert
On Saturday March 3rd, 2018 the second annual Tech Under Twenty Cup (TU20 Cup) took place. There were 13 teams and over 50 students from local high schools in Halton and Universities. I was a judge and I pledged to the teams that I would post my scores and comments publicly.
About the TU20 Cup
For those of you not familiar with the TU20 Cup, it is a multi-month event focused on motivating youth to get involved with technology and business. Teams of 2-6 students work with the help of a mentor to innovate a solution using technology relating to the yearly theme, in advance to the day of the event. This years’ theme was: how to make your town or city smarter.
How the Judging Worked
Each team had twelve minutes in front of the judging panels broken down as follows:
- Two minute video about their business idea, product or project
- Five minute presentation and demo
- Five minute Q&A with judges panel
There were thirteen teams, six judges and two judging rounds:
- Round One: teams and judges were split into two groups and presented concurrently in separate rooms to the judges. Participants, attendees and parents were welcome to sit in on the presentations. The top two teams for each group advanced to round two: the finals.
- Round Two: The four finalists presented to all seven judges. Participants, attendees and parents were welcome to sit in on the presentations.
By the way, you can refer to the judging criteria document [link date: Mar 12/18] for more details on how teams and judges were prepared by the TU20 executive.
How I Ranked the Teams
In round one, there were three judges including myself in our group. The teams that presented were: RouteE2M (E2M), SensorFlow (SF), Halton Flow (HF), EventHost (EH), Reach (REA) & A2B. Below are my scores:
| Criteria | Value | E2M | SF | HF | EH | REA | A2B | Avg. |
| Presentation of project | /10 | 5/10 | 8/10 | 10/10 | 8/10 | 9/10 | 5/10 | 7.5/10 |
| Implementation of theme (making smarter cities) | /15 | 13/15 | 11/15 | 14/15 | 11/15 | 12/15 | 10/15 | 11.8/15 |
| Impact | /15 | 12/15 | 12/15 | 14/15 | 13/15 | 14/15 | 8/15 | 12.2/15 |
| Technical Product/Demo | /20 | 18/20 | 7/20 | 18/20 | 14/20 | 14/20 | 14/20 | 14.2/20 |
| Creativity & Innovation | /20 | 15/20 | 14/20 | 18/20 | 16/20 | 18/20 | 15/20 | 16/20 |
| Business plan | /15 | 4/15 | 8/15 | 9/15 | 8/15 | 10/15 | 8/15 | 7.8/15 |
| Project Video | /5 | 3/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 0/5 | 3/5 | 3.5/5 |
| Total | /100 | 70/100 | 65/100 | 88/100 | 75/100 | 77/100 | 63/100 | 73/100 |
| Place | 4 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
My top three, in this order, were Halton Flow, Reach and EventHost. But, I was one of three judges that were presented to and after factoring in their scores the top two in our group that were put forward for round two were: EventHost and Reach.
In round two, there were seven judges, and the top two teams from each group in round one presented. The teams that presented were: Road Alerts, Halton Info, Reach and EventHost. Below are my scores:
| Criteria | Value | RA | HI | REA | EH | Avg. |
| Presentation of project | /10 | 7/10 | 8/10 | 8/10 | 8/10 | 7.8/10 |
| Implementation of theme (making smarter cities) | /15 | 14/15 | 11/15 | 12/15 | 11/15 | 12/15 |
| Impact | /15 | 12/15 | 12/15 | 12/15 | 13/15 | 12.3/15 |
| Technical Product/Demo | /20 | 15/20 | 16/20 | 16/20 | 14/20 | 15.3/20 |
| Creativity & Innovation | /20 | 14/20 | 15/20 | 15/20 | 16/20 | 15/20 |
| Business plan | /15 | – | – | – | – | – |
| Project Video | /5 | 4/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 4.5/5 |
| Total* | /100 | 66/85 | 67/85 | 68/85 | 67/85 | 67/85 |
| Place | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
* Note: Judges were not provided with business plans to review from other group so it did not factor into my ranking. During the Q&A sessions I was silent when my groups two finalists were up to allow those judges who were seeing them for the first time to ask questions of the teams.
[NEW] A Word (or two) to All TU20 Cup Participants
After the 2017 TU20 Cup I put this video together that I hope entrepreneurs, of all ages, can use to help them stay motivated, not feel alone and remember to bake “value” into their business models. BTW, I’m a slow talker so bump up the video play speed to 1.25 or 1.5!
