Winners of the SpringBoard Elevator Pitch challenge were announced shortly after Chapel in Hart Auditorium yesterday.

Troy Bonneau, freshman computer science major from Farmers Branch, won first prize for his Greenstrip idea. His idea takes timed lights and smart phone applications and combines them into one concept, allowing a user to save energy whether he or she is home or not.

“I saw one of the little timers you use at Christmas to control the lights, to turn the them on and off at different times, and I was just like, ‘how can I make that better?'” he said. “I think smart phone integration is a great way to bring a device into the phone. And so that’s how the Greenstrip came to be.”

First prize awarded $1,500, which Bonneau said he will most likely put towards getting his idea out there.

“I wanted an idea that people could see. A lot of the ideas expressed here in the past years were a little out there, I was really looking for something the people could understand,” Bonneau said. “The most I could do is use the money to get my idea out to another investor who can fund it a little bit better.”

Tyler Edison, junior finance major from College Station, won second place with his Thingstrend pitch. The idea centers around all college students in America having a safe and efficient online site to buy and sell items to one another. It has already been put into action, but Edison now has $750 to place towards expansion.

“At the beginning of this semester, we had 30 users online and 20 items uploaded. Right now we have 195 users with 93 items uploaded,” Edison said. “Next semester we’re going to every college in Abilene, and the semester afterwards we’re going to all 48 colleges in Dallas.”

Jeff Johnston, sophomore ad/PR from Coppell, received third place for his “Signmeup” pitch. With this idea, he hopes to organize a company that will create more professional-looking garage sale signs for people who lack concepts of design or time.

Lastly, Rudy Garza, sophomore marketing major from Corpus Christi, won $250 in a student-choice award for his “V-Card” pitch. His idea called for a convergence of all social media which would allow a person to connect to anyone’s entire social media outlets with just one click of a button, therefore increasing the efficiency of networking.