For the first time ever, an all-undergrad team made it to the final round of the Olin Cup business plan competition and received one of three awards granted.

Sparo Labs, a medical device company that has developed a new spirometer to monitor lung function, was awarded $30,000. The team consists of four WUSTL undergraduate students.  The team is pictured above: Jon Koo (A&S), Abby Cohen (Engineering), Andrew Brimer (Engineering), and Chris Cassidy (Olin).

Each of the three teams also received a $5,000 cash prize, as they include current students or young alumni who worked on the ventures while they were students.

“The student grant means a lot to us because we are the first team of only undergraduate students to win it,” says Abigail Cohen, one of the Sparo Labs team members and a senior biomedical engineering major. “For us to be named one of the winners and also to get a $30,000 investment was a big milestone for us, and it means a lot to us.”

The ceremony was the culmination of a four-month competition among the contestants.

“We’re a hardworking team,” Cohen says. “Hard work pays off sometimes and it has paid off for us. We’ve got a good product, and people see that, and people also see that we’re really passionate about it and really excited about where it could go. We’re going to work our best and hardest to get it where it needs to be.”

Read about all the winners in Olin News.