Students Win Butterfield Cup for App That Helps Detect Counterfeit Drugs

A five-student team from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology has won the 2016 Butterfield Cup, awarded by local entrepreneurs to the best mobile app business plan, product and investor pitch. The cup comes with a trophy, a prized seat at a start-up boot camp and dinner with university President Heather Wilson and local venture capitalists.

This year, the client for the competition was the Center for Security Printing & Anti-Counterfeiting Technology, a research center established by the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, South Dakota State University and the University of South Dakota. The winning team designed an app that finds variations in isotope abundances to detect counterfeit drugs.

Team members included computer science junior Benjamin Kaiser, from Cheyenne, Wyo., math and computer science senior Bryon Glass, from Washington, D.C., computer science junior Akshay Singh, from India, math and computer science junior Cassidy Vollmer, from Hot Springs, and computer science junior Taylor Doell, from Elsie, Neb.

The culmination of a semester’s worth of work, the second-annual competition pitted seven Mines teams led by student CEOs against each other to develop the best product.

Last year’s winners were finalists in the Governor’s Giant Vision Student Business Competition for Bowtaps, a mobile app with features to track friends and fellow users at events and provide businesses a platform to showcase their venue.

See more photos of the competition and awards ceremony here.