POTSDAM -- A cross-disciplinary team of Clarkson University students recently took first place in Tiger Tank, a business pitch competition sponsored by Rochester Institute of Technology’s Saunders College of Business.

Jack Lamuraglia ’21, an electrical engineering major, and Tanner Wallis ’21, a mechanical engineering major teamed up with Jacob Kumpon, a junior at Binghamton University, to create KLAW Industries, which turns recycled glass into a pozzolan that is used in concrete manufacturing.

KLAW Industries was founded in January 2019 and was selected to join the Shipley Center for Innovation at Clarkson’s student accelerator “The Cube” in the Fall of 2019. The Cube, founded in 2018, aims to accelerate student-founded companies through dedicated project teams, seed-stage capital, and access to a network of attorneys, accountants, and investors.

“Seeing Clarkson students take advantage of the Cube and become successful in their venture proves the power of our comprehensive startup ecosystem can have,” said Ashley Sweeney, Associate Director of the Shipley Center. “KLAW’s technology has the ability to make a big impact on the world, they have worked diligently on their company and I am proud that their hard work brought home first place in the RIT competition.”

Tiger Tank gives students the opportunity to pitch their business idea to a panel of judges, known as tiger sharks, for a chance to win cash prizes and scholarships. Over 60 student teams from universities across New York submitted a 90-second video pitch of their idea to the competition in the first round, 30 teams were selected as semi-finalists for the final round.

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